Department of payment instructions from 2011
After Lao Dong Newspaper published an article reflecting "School health workers feel hurt because their benefits are neglected", Chairman of Binh Dinh Provincial People's Committee Pham Anh Tuan directed the Department of Education and Training to preside over and coordinate with the Department of Home Affairs, Department of Finance and relevant parties to handle the matter. Promptly instruct the People's Committee of Tay Son district and other localities to implement support policies for health workers according to regulations. Half a month after the direction of the Chairman of Binh Dinh Provincial People's Committee, Tay Son district spent nearly 500 million VND to resolve the preferential allowance regime according to the profession in 2024 for 44 health workers and met with the Department of Education and Training to discuss solutions to collect previous years' benefits for health workers.
After consulting with the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Finance, the Department of Education and Training of Binh Dinh province has issued a document guiding localities to implement preferential allowances according to the profession for health workers.
Regarding the allowance level, the Department of Education and Training recommends that districts, towns and cities guide schools to consider and decide on the preferential allowance level for health workers (not exceeding 20% of the current salary scale and grade) according to Clause 6, Article 3 of Decree No. 56/2011/ND-CP dated July 4, 2011 (abbreviated as Decree 56) of the Government regulating the preferential allowance regime according to the profession for civil servants and public employees working at public health facilities. The time of receiving the allowance regime is the responsibility of the school principal to confirm.
The source of funding to pay for NVYTTH comes from the school's revenue, considered and decided by the principal based on the specific nature of the work (including the State budget).
The time for payment of preferential allowances for medical staff is calculated from August 19, 2011 according to Clause 2, Article 7 of Joint Circular No. 02/2012/TTLTBYT-BNV-BTC (abbreviated as Circular 02) dated January 19, 2012 of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of Decree 56.
Department of guidance, locality still difficult to do
Mr. Phan Chi Hung - Chairman of Tay Son District People's Committee - said that the Department of Education and Training has provided instructions on payment of allowances for health workers, but the instructions are very general, do not mention the collection of allowances for these subjects, and do not resolve the problems that the locality is facing when implementing Decree 56. "Through meetings and in writing, the district has requested the Department of Education and Training to provide specific instructions on the percentage of expenditure and from which budget source. Because from the beginning of implementing Decree 56, the locality has encountered difficulties because the allowance level for health workers is not more than 20% and the source of expenditure (school revenue and state budget) is not clear. Recently, the Department of Education and Training has sent a document guiding the payment of allowances, but the content of the instructions is no different from Decree 56, so the locality is helpless. Therefore, the locality is waiting for instructions from the Provincial People's Committee to implement", Mr. Hung said.
According to Mr. Hung, Circular 02 has guided the payment of allowances since 2011, however, Decree 56 has given the right to principals to decide on the percentage and time of receiving allowances, based on the specific work and revenue of the school. Therefore, principals have the right to decide not to pay support because there is no revenue. “From 2023 onwards, the Department of Education and Training (level 1 budget unit) received the budget from the district and allocated it to the schools, so the implementation of policies for health workers in previous years was mainly through the Department. The district was only assigned to manage it later (2024),” said Mr. Hung.
Mr. Hung suggested that the Government should consider and adjust the percentage of benefits for health workers to 20%, instead of no more than 20%, and the source of funding for payment should come from the State budget, so that localities no longer have problems paying benefits to health workers.
