Mr. Tran Ngoc B has retired for 5 years now but has not recovered the debt and is currently living very difficultly.
He said that every month, he deducts a portion of his salary to pay social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance. That amount of money is reserved for him when he is sick, unemployed or old.
Therefore, when businesses are late in paying or intentionally owing social insurance for many years, it is an act of occupying a part of our income and social security rights," he said.
The consequences of social insurance debt often do not come immediately, but are very serious. A female worker taking maternity leave right when the business owes insurance will have to wait many months to receive maternity benefits, even some people do not know when it will be resolved.
A worker quits his job and cannot finalize his social insurance book to move to a new workplace. Some people are eligible for unemployment benefits but have to sadly leave because the business still owes them insurance contributions. Many workers have transferred jobs for many years but their rights are still "suspended" by the debt of the old business.
It is worth mentioning that the people who suffer the most are not the ones who cause the violations. Workers still go to work, still complete their work, and are still deducted insurance money from their monthly salaries. They do not have the right to decide whether the business pays insurance or not. But in the end, they are the ones who lose their rights when the business delays or intentionally appropriates this money.
That is a paradox that needs to be seriously considered.
In many cases, businesses cite financial difficulties. In fact, there are businesses that are indeed facing objective difficulties. But there are also many units that still maintain production activities, still sign new contracts, still expand business, while prolonging the situation of social insurance debt as a way to illegally appropriate workers' money as working capital.
This not only violates the law but also erodes trust in the social security system. Because social insurance is built on the foundation of trust. Workers accept to spend a portion of today's income to exchange for security for tomorrow. If that right may be suspended just because businesses do not fulfill their obligations, then trust in social security policies will also be affected.
Handling social insurance debt is therefore not just recovering a sum of money. More importantly, it is protecting the legitimate rights of workers and maintaining the strictness of the law.
Therefore, along with strengthening inspections, publicizing the list of businesses owing debts for a long time and strictly handling cases of intentionally evading payment, it is also necessary to continue to improve the mechanism so that employees do not have to become the ones bearing the consequences of the company's violations.
