Finding a way to get the whole road
After more than 10 years of working as a civil servant in the education sector in Bac Giang province (now Bac Ninh), Ms. Pham Thi Binh Giang (born in 1983) received a salary of about 8 million VND/month, including allowances.
With that amount of money, she can cover basic living expenses and send her children to school, but still have to be cautious about daily expenses. Every month, from electricity, water to food, medicine, she calculates every bit.
"Many people ask me why I don't quit my job. But my family is not well off, my adoptive parents took me to university for 4 years, after graduating, I went to work and then went to school on my own for another 2 years. Now that I have left, I regret time, effort, money and even the expectations of my family.
People say that if you love your job, you won't complain about low salary. But if the salary is not enough to live on, we have to find a way to get by" - Ms. Giang confided.
To have more funds to cover living expenses, female civil servants take advantage of their hometown's strengths and sell local specialties online. Banh Da, Mai Gia, nem So or other agricultural products are packaged and promoted by Ms. Giang on social networks such as Facebook, Tiktok...
This job helps her earn more income, teach her how to manage, communicate and handle situations, and sometimes those skills are useful for her work at school.
However, this also means taking advantage of every free time, from early morning to late night, to manage orders, deliver and take care of customers. On peak days, she only had a few hours to rest, and her health was sometimes affected.
Ms. Giang's story is a situation that many civil servants are facing. The basic salary is only enough to cover the minimum living standard, while the cost of living is getting higher and higher. Many of her colleagues also have to find extra jobs to ensure their lives.
No longer a safe haven
In reality, difficulties in salary, allowances and benefits such as Ms. Giang's story raise the need for salary policy reform, not only to ensure the lives of cadres, civil servants and public employees but also to attract and retain talents in the public sector.
The Law on Public Employees is amended according to the method of managing civil servants according to job positions to suit the trend of reforming the public sector, creating a legal basis for paying salaries according to positions and improving benefits.
Dr. Pham Manh Hung - University of Economics (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) - acknowledged: Attracting and promoting talents, including overseas Vietnamese, is not a new problem. The new point this time is to "upgrade" and "legalize" the Civil Servants' Law, but the biggest challenge still lies in the implementation stage, if there is no clear and drastic enough mechanism, the risk of still being the same is very high.
He believes that attracting talent cannot stop at "inviting" with a salary, but must be associated with building a comprehensive development ecosystem - including a favorable working environment, opportunities for promotion based on capacity and practical support for life, family, and social integration.
"Only when cadres, civil servants and public employees feel appreciated for both their careers and their lives, are they ready to stay long-term" - Dr. Pham Manh Hung shared.
He also emphasized that this policy should not stop at adding a few provisions to the law, but should aim for specific policy mechanisms to be implemented in practice.
Along with perfecting the treatment regime, building a professional working environment and ensuring opportunities for promotion based on capacity, the most important thing is to arouse professional pride and a spirit of dedication.
At that time, public service will no longer be considered "a stable workplace" or "safe haven", but will become a noble mission - serving the Fatherland, serving the people, accompanying the aspiration to develop the country in the digital age.
