After the reflection of Lao Dong Newspaper on the difficulties of catering staff at ethnic minority boarding schools (PTDTNT) due to changes in contract form, functional agencies of Quang Tri province continue to review to find appropriate solutions.
According to the Department of Home Affairs of Quang Tri province, currently PTDTNT secondary and high schools in the province are implementing contracts with 46 cooks. Previously, the Department of Education and Training had organized an inter-sectoral meeting with the Department of Home Affairs, Department of Finance, and People's Committees of communes with PTDTNT schools to agree on signing contracts with this labor group.
However, in the process of advising on handling, the Government's new regulations on civil servant positions and contracts for performing work in public non-business units, effective from July 1, 2026, have replaced some previous regulations, making the previously developed handling plan no longer appropriate.
According to the Department of Home Affairs of Quang Tri province, there is currently an intersection between two groups of regulations related to nursing work in schools. Specifically, Decree No. 232/2026/ND-CP of the Government stipulates that the job position "nursing work in educational institutions" belongs to the group of supporting civil servant positions in the education sector. According to this regulation, cooking work at the Ethnic Minority Boarding School can be considered and identified as a supporting civil servant position in a public non-business unit.
Meanwhile, Decree No. 235/2026/ND-CP on contracts for performing work in public non-business units stipulates that the jobs serving the operation of public non-business units are not included in the list of civil servant positions, including "other service jobs decided by the head of the public non-business unit". According to this regulation, cooking work can also be understood as service work performed under the contract regime.
Due to the lack of specific criteria to distinguish whether cooking work at the Ethnic Minority Boarding School belongs to supporting civil servant positions or to service group jobs under contract, the Department of Home Affairs of Quang Tri province has requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide guidance.
After receiving guidance from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Department of Home Affairs will advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue a document to implement contracts for performing work in public non-business units and resolve petitions from nursing staff at ethnic minority boarding schools in accordance with regulations.
Previously, Lao Dong Newspaper had an article reflecting the difficulties faced by catering staff at ethnic minority boarding schools in the southern province of Quang Tri after changing the contract form, causing income and some benefits to be affected. As in the case of Ms. Tran Thi Le (born 1977, residing in Vinh Linh commune) who has been attached to the kitchen of Vinh Linh Ethnic Minority Boarding School for 31 years and has signed a contract under Decree 111/2022/ND-CP (contract 111) with a salary of more than 8.6 million VND/month. However, from January 2026, contract 111 was terminated, she had to re-sign a service contract with the school, causing the salary to decrease. When deducting the compulsory social insurance contribution, Ms. Le's actual amount received was only more than 3.2 million VND.
The above-mentioned income is not enough to cover living expenses, so catering staff have written letters to relevant units and come to Lao Dong Newspaper to reflect, hoping that functional agencies will soon have appropriate solutions, because this is a job associated with caring for and nurturing students at schools with specific characteristics.
