The general director left the country and the workers were at a loss
In early November 2023, we received a complaint from workers in Bac Giang about the Korean General Director who returned home for 2 months and has not returned.
Accordingly, more than 200 employees of TTB Vietnam MFG Co., Ltd. (Viet Yen town, Bac Giang province) are owed billions of dong in salary and social insurance. We departed from Hanoi to Bac Giang to record and understand the incident. Present at the company gate early in the morning, we saw dozens of workers "on duty" here. Most of them have houses near the company, but have not found a new job yet, so they come to "watch" and protect their assets, hoping that these assets will be a source to pay salaries and social insurance. At night, there will be 2-3 male workers stationed at the gate. By early morning, they still have not returned home.
Among the more than 200 hundred workers who are owed wages and social insurance , there are those who have been with this company for 17 years. The workers here, most of whom are the main economic breadwinners of their families, when they don't have a job, their income and "bread and butter" of the whole family are also shaken.
We met Mr. Than Van Tai (Viet Yen town, Bac Giang province) at a time when he and more than a dozen other workers "guarded the gate" at the company. His face was dark due to hard work, Mr. Tai could not hide his worry and insecurity. For a sincere person like him, he cannot fully imagine the consequences that workers like him face once the business owner "leaves without return". He simply thought that he and his colleagues were owed salaries and social insurance, and therefore, he and others had to stay at the company to prevent the company from selling all its assets.
"If the business owner doesn't come back, there is still a little bit of property that can compensate the workers," Mr. Tai said, hoping to claim the rights for himself and other workers. .
Nearly 2 months later, we had the opportunity to go directly to Mr. Tai's house to learn about the difficult life of workers when the company owed them wages and delayed social insurance payments. He lives with his parents in a house located deep in the alley, with 2 spacious but simple rooms.
Mr. Tai has not been able to find a job with a stable income, so he has to work as a construction assistant to make a living. Seeing the reporter, he felt like he was able to vent his feelings. Holding in his hand the salary book that was owed about more than 10 million VND, Mr. Tai said in dismay that not only did he owe the salary, the company also owed 8 months of social insurance .
Being owed salary at the end of the year, Mr. Tai was even more worried because he did not receive a Tet bonus. Mr. Tai lives with his parents, has no wife or children. His father used to work as a carpenter. Now that he's old and has a few jobs, he doesn't work. His mother is over 50, works for a company, receives a salary of more than 5 million VND/month, and has only paid social insurance for 3 years. His parents later did not have a pension, and he was the son of the family and could not stabilize the family.
Among the workers in the same situation that Mr. Tai knows, there are people who applied for a new job but had to work in Bac Ninh. There are cases like yours where even women apply to work as masons. Up to now, Mr. Tai still cannot have a stable job and is still late in paying social insurance. Mr. Tai wants the State to take stronger measures against businesses that owe money and are slow to pay social insurance, so that workers have confidence and motivation to contribute.
Only 1 month of social insurance debt...
Meeting workers, expressing their feelings, desires, and frustrations is the duty of a reporter, especially a reporter from a No. 1 newspaper in protecting workers' rights like Lao Dong Newspaper. We look forward and hope that after the articles, the unpaid salary and social insurance situation of workers will be resolved.
However, due to many problems, up to this point, workers still have their benefits "suspended". Every time we think about these incidents, the faces of many workers appear in our minds - faces that are still filled with worry and insecurity when the incident has not been resolved for a long time. resolved definitively.
Also in the situation of business owners fleeing, owing wages, and social insurance debt is the case of workers at NC LED Co., Ltd. (Tien Du district, Bac Ninh province). Unlike at TTB Vietnam MFG Co., Ltd., these cases of workers in Bac Ninh only owe social insurance for 1 month (April 2020).
I still remember the time I met the workers in February 2023. At that time, the weather was very cold. I heard that a reporter came to investigate the incident. Many workers (who had found new jobs) asked for leave to come and meet them in person. There are cases where people even take a bus from Thanh Hoa to Bac Ninh. They all hope that reporters will collect information and upload articles, thereby contributing to solving the case.
Recently, I contacted Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tu - one of the labor reporters who reported. He said he went to work at another company and paid social insurance. “However, up to this point, I still owe social insurance payments at my old company in April 2024. Because of this debt, my social insurance benefits are still suspended" - Mr. Tu lamented.
Before the business owner fled, Mr. Tu had 10 years of paying social insurance. Currently, this long period of social insurance payment has not been "seamlessly" connected with the recent period of social insurance payment. Just one month of social insurance debt, not a large amount of money, but it left a lot of suffering, consequences, and worries for Mr. Tu. This is also the common situation of many other workers. This causes the social insurance benefits of many workers to continue to be "suspended".
“I had planned to pay my own money towards the remaining amount owed - about 3 million VND - but the social insurance agency did not allow it because it was not in accordance with regulations. Right now, I still don't know how my case will be resolved" - Mr. Tu shared. Although the incident has not been completely resolved, Mr. Tu still thanked the reporter for not taking the trouble to directly meet the workers to record and report the incident to the newspaper. Mr. Tu said that thanks to information in the press, public opinion will know about the incident so that there will gradually be a solution and change.
Mr. Tu said, recently, it was known that in the Resolution of the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly, the National Assembly assigned the Government to regulate subjects, conditions, levels of support, order and procedures for resolving retirement benefits. , death benefit for employees in case the employer is no longer able to pay social insurance for employees before July 1, 2024.
Funding for implementation is from the revenue from handling late payment or evasion of payment specified in Clause 3, Article 122 of the Law on Social Insurance No. 58/2014/QH13 and the amount of 0.03%/day collected according to the provisions of Clause 1 Article 40 and Clause 1, Article 41 of the Law on Social Insurance (amended) were passed by the National Assembly at the 7th Session. In case the competent authority discovers that the employer is still able to pay insurance Social insurance for employees will be collected and paid into the Social Insurance Fund and violations will be handled according to the provisions of law.
Thus, cases like Mr. Tu's have seen "light at the end of the tunnel", helping him alleviate his worries and concerns. We also hope that when we meet again, their faces will no longer be filled with worry and insecurity, but instead will be filled with smiles and a belief in good things to come...
