On the afternoon of January 6, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on Employment (amended).
The report on some major issues regarding the reception, explanation and revision of the draft Law on Employment (amended) clearly stated that at the time the Government submitted the draft Law, it had not yet thoroughly implemented the policy of innovation and reorganization of the political system.
Therefore, the draft Law has not anticipated the impact of implementing this policy, such as: Names, functions, and tasks of agencies and organizations in the draft Law (due to merger).
Commenting on this issue, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that the implementation of the policy of restructuring and streamlining the apparatus directly affects the names, functions and tasks of State management agencies and the balancing of the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly said that at the conference summarizing the internal affairs sector, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh stated that about 100,000 cadres, civil servants and public employees were affected in the restructuring and streamlining of the apparatus.
From there, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh asked the leaders of the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) to give specific opinions on this matter.
Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Le Hung Son said that according to Decree 178/2024 (on policies for cadres, civil servants, public employees, and armed forces when restructuring the apparatus), there will certainly be civil servants working at public service units who are not eligible for retirement benefits and will receive unemployment insurance benefits, including: Unemployment benefits and vocational training support.
According to Mr. Le Hung Son, about 100,000 people are affected when the apparatus is reorganized to include both civil servants and public employees. However, only public employees can participate and benefit from unemployment insurance.
"Vietnam Social Security currently does not have specific data to assess the impact on the Unemployment Insurance Fund," Mr. Le Hung Son added.
Regarding whether the streamlining of the apparatus will affect the settlement and payment of unemployment insurance, Mr. Le Hung Son cited that in 2023, there were more than 1.049 million people receiving unemployment benefits and Vietnam Social Security paid 99.3% of these people through personal accounts.
“The settlement of payments is not related to administrative boundaries. Therefore, if implemented according to the new model, even inter-district will not affect the payment to unemployment beneficiaries” - Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security affirmed.
Mr. Le Hung Son added that if there are expenses for civil servants receiving unemployment benefits under Decree 178, the fund for the expenses will still be available. With the current surplus of the Unemployment Insurance Fund of 63,000 billion VND, it will certainly be enough to cover the expenses for civil servants who have quit their jobs when streamlining the apparatus.
Clarifying some issues in the draft Law, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) Dao Ngoc Dung said that the Employment Law has so far mainly been related to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, but now it has expanded to many different agencies.
Accordingly, vocational training or vocational education activities, when reorganizing the apparatus, will be transferred to the Ministry of Education and Training, so the vocational skills education part will be transferred to this Ministry for management.
The part related to the Department of Employment of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs will be separated at present, so in principle, the draft Law only states what vocational skills are, and later the Government will stipulate the direction for the relevant ministry to be in charge.
Similarly, vocational training for people with disabilities has long been managed by the Department of Social Protection, but now the unit will be transferred to the Ministry of Health and must also be separated.
