Policy reserve for commune cadres and civil servants
The Ministry of Justice has just announced the appraisal dossier of the draft Law on Cadres and Civil Servants (amended) developed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, consisting of 8 chapters and 54 articles.
The draft Law amends regulations related to cadres and civil servants (CBCC) when organizing local government at 2 levels (provincial and commune levels).
Compared to current regulations, the draft Law removes a chapter on CBCC at the commune level. This is to unify the management of the staff from the central to the commune level, without distinguishing between commune-level civil servants and provincial-level civil servants, ensuring compliance with the Party's policy on communication in cadre work.
In addition, to suit the organization of local government at 2 levels, the draft Law has amended the concept of public service, in which it stipulates public service at the central, provincial and commune levels (eliminating district levels).
In particular, the draft Law supplements transitional provisions to ensure that commune-level public employees (currently in effect) keep the same number of positions until the review, streamlining, restructuring and arrangement according to the job position of local authorities is completed.
This group also receives the current salary reserve until new jobs are arranged according to Government regulations; ensuring continuity, not affecting the normal service of people and businesses when implementing the 2-level local government model.
Statistics from the Ministry of Home Affairs show that as of December 31, 2024, the number of commune-level civil servants is 212,606 people, of which 92.4% have graduated from university or higher and 7.6% have graduated from college or higher.
Thus, after the merger of communes, the number of commune-level civil servants is currently being proposed to remain on the payroll until the restructuring and arrangement according to job positions is completed.
No distinction between civil servants at all levels
At the regular Government press conference in March 2025 held on the afternoon of April 6, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha affirmed that the special regimes and policies applied to local people will remain the same as before the arrangement; for the staff and workers, there will be 4 specific regimes and policies.
In which, the unified civil service and public employee regime from the central to the commune level will be implemented. According to this plan, there is no distinction between central and provincial-level public service agencies and commune-level agencies as at present.
At the same time, the Ministry of Home Affairs also conducts reviews and screening to arrange those who meet the requirements of standards and professional capacity to continue working at agencies, organizations and units.
The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs said that there will be policies to preserve salaries and position allowances for those who are arranged for lower positions or do not hold positions for a certain period of time.
As for cases that wish to retire early or retire due to not meeting the requirements of tasks and positions, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs said that there will be preferential regimes and policies to encourage these cases to retire according to the regime according to Decree No. 178/2024 and Decree No. 67/2025.
According to former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Tien Dinh, after removing the district level and expanding the commune scale, each commune and ward needs at least 50-60 cadres (twice as many as today) to ensure operations.
"To ensure human resources for the grassroots government, in addition to the existing commune-level civil servants, it is necessary to transfer provincial and district civil servants to work.
Especially after the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants (amended) comes into effect with the regulation of not distinguishing between commune-level civil servants and provincial and central levels, this transfer is completely easy" - Mr. Dinh emphasized.
