The Government issues policies to support employees and employers facing difficulties due to COVID-19

The Government has just issued Resolution No. 68/NQ-CP on a number of policies to support employees and employers facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim is to support employees and employers facing difficulties due to the impact of the pandemic.COVID-19, contributing to the recovery of production and business, minimizing the negative impacts of the pandemic, stabilizing production and business, ensuring the lives and safety of workers.

The Resolution clearly states that the support principle must ensure timely, targeted, public, transparent support, without taking advantage of or profiting from policies; ensuring the feasibility and effectiveness of policies and resources for implementation. Each subject is only entitled to one support policy. Workers who are supported one time in cash (except for subjects eligible for additional policies specified in Point 7 and Point 8, Section II of this Resolution) are only entitled to one support regime; no support is provided to subjects who voluntarily do not participate.

At the same time, it is necessary to promote the initiative of all levels, sectors and localities, based on specific conditions to flexibly implement, ensure goals, principles and timely support policies.

State budget support is implemented as follows:

Provinces and cities with a rate of regulating revenue allocation to the central budget of over 60% must ensure their own funding for implementation.

The Central budget supports the remaining localities according to the following principles:

- 80% of the actual expenditure level as prescribed in this Resolution for mountainous provinces and the Central Highlands.

- 60% of the actual expenditure level as prescribed in this Resolution for the remaining provinces that have not yet balanced their budgets (except for mountainous provinces and the Central Highlands).

- 40% of the actual expenditure level as prescribed in this Resolution for provinces and cities with the remaining rate of regulating revenue allocation to the central budget.

Provinces and centrally-run cities proactively use 50% of local budget reserves (including all three levels of province, district and commune) and 70% of local financial reserve funds and remaining salary reform funds to implement the principles and support regimes stipulated in this Resolution.

Regarding support content, the Government decided to implement the following 12 policies:

1. Policy to reduce occupational accident and disease insurance premiums

Employers are allowed to apply a contribution rate of 0% of the salary fund as the basis for social insurance contributions to the Occupational Accident and Disease Insurance Fund for 12 months (from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022) for employees subject to the occupational accident and disease insurance regime (except for cadres, civil servants, public employees, people in the People's Armed Forces, employees in agencies of the Party, the State, administrative agencies, and public service units receiving salaries from the state budget). Employers support the entire amount obtained from the reduction of contributions to the Occupational Accident and Disease Insurance Fund for employees to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Policy to temporarily suspend contributions to pension and death benefit funds

Employers who have paid enough social insurance or are temporarily suspending contributions to the Pension and Death Fund until the end of April 2021 and are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a reduction of 15% or more of employees participating in social insurance compared to April 2021 (including employees who have stopped working, temporarily suspended the performance of labor contracts, or agreed to take unpaid leave), the employees and employers are allowed to temporarily suspend contributions to the Pension and Death Fund for 6 months from the time of submitting the application. For cases that have been temporarily suspended according to Resolution No. 42/NQ-CP dated April 9, 2020 and Resolution No. 154/NQ-CP dated October 19, 2020 of the Government, if eligible, they will still be resolved, but the total period of suspension of contributions must not exceed 12 months.

3. Policy to support training and maintain employment for workers

Employers are supported with funding for training, fostering, and improving vocational skills from the Unemployment Insurance Fund when they have paid unemployment insurance for employees for 12 months or more up to the time of requesting support; change the technological structure according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 42, Labor Code; have revenue in the quarter immediately preceding the time of requesting support decrease by 10% or more compared to the same period in 2019 or 2020; have a plan or coordinatewith vocational training institutions that have plans to train, foster, and improve vocational skills to maintain employment for workers according to regulations. The maximum support level is 1,500,000 VND/worker/month and the maximum support period is 06 months. Application for support must be submitted from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022.

4. Policy to support employees who temporarily suspend their labor contracts or take unpaid leave

Employees working at enterprises, cooperatives, public service units that self-insure regular expenses or investment and regular expenses, private educational institutions at preschool, kindergarten, primary, secondary, high school, vocational education levels that are temporarily suspended at the request of competent state agencies to prevent and fight the COVID-19 pandemic have a period of temporary suspension of labor contracts, unpaid leave during the term of the labor contract of 15 consecutive days or more, from May 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and the time of starting the temporary suspension of labor contracts, unpaid leave from May 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021; Those who are participating in compulsory social insurance up to the time immediately before the suspension of the labor contract and are on unpaid leave will receive one-time support as follows: From 15 consecutive days or more to less than 1 month, the rate is 1,855,000 VND/person; from 1 month or more, the rate is 3,710,000 VND/person.

5.Employee support policystop working

Employees working under labor contracts who are suspended from work according to Clause 3, Article 99 of the Labor Code and are subject to medical quarantine or in locked-down areas at the request of competent state agencies for 14 days or more during the period from May 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021; and are participating in compulsory social insurance up to the time immediately before the suspension of work will receive a one-time support of VND 1,000,000/person.

6. Policy to support employees terminating labor contracts

Employees working at enterprises, cooperatives, public service units that self-insure regular expenses or investment and regular expenses, private educational institutions at preschool, kindergarten, primary, secondary, high school, vocational education levels who terminate their labor contracts due to having to stop operations at the request of competent state agencies to prevent and fight the COVID-19 pandemic during the period from May 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021; who are participating in compulsory social insurance but are not eligible for unemployment benefits will receive a one-time support of VND 3,710,000/person.

7. Additional support policy and children

a) Pregnant workers at points 4, 5, 6 Section II are supported with an additional VND 1,000,000/person; those raising or providing alternative care for children under 6 years old are supported with an additional VND 1,000,000/child under 6 years old and only supported for 1 person, the mother or father.

b) Children who must be treated for COVID-19 infection or quarantined according to the decision of a competent state agency shall have their treatment and meal expenses covered by the state budget as prescribed in Point 8, Section II of this Resolution; and shall receive an additional state budget support of VND 1,000,000/child during the treatment and quarantine period from April 27, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

8. Food allowance of 80,000 VND/person/day for people undergoing treatment for COVID-19 infection(F0), from April 27, 2021 to December 31, 2021, support time is based on actual treatment time but maximum 45 days.

Support food allowance of 80,000 VND/person/day for people who must undergo medical isolation (F1) according to the decision of competent state agencies, from April 27, 2021 to December 31, 2021, maximum support period of 21 days.

9. One-time support of VND 3,710,000/person for art directors, actors, and painters holding professional titles of level IVPublic service units engaged in performing arts activities (excluding armed forces art units) must stop operations for 15 days or more to prevent and fight the COVID-19 epidemic from May 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

One-time support of VND 3,710,000/person for tour guides with tour guide practice cards affected by the COVID-19 pandemic from May 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

10. Business household support policy

Business households with business registration, tax registration and must stop operations for 15 consecutive days or more from May 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 at the request of competent state agencies to prevent and fight the COVID-19 epidemic will receive a one-time support of VND 3,000,000/household from the State budget.

11. Loan policy for paying wages for work stoppages and wages for production recovery

a) Loans to pay for severance pay: Employers can borrow capital from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies at 0% interest rate and do not have to take measures to secure the loan to pay for severance pay for employees participating in compulsory social insurance who are required to stop working for 15 consecutive days or more according to regulations in Clause 3, Article 99 of the Labor Code, from May 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. Employers do not have bad debts at credit institutions and foreign bank branches at the time of loan application. The maximum loan amount is equal to the regional minimum wage for the number of employees according to the actual severance pay period of up to 3 months. Loan term is less than 12 months.

b) Loans to pay wages to restore production: Employers who must temporarily suspend operations due to the request of competent state agencies to prevent and combat the COVID-19 pandemic from May 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 when returning to production and business, and employers operating in the fields of transportation, aviation, tourism, accommodation services and sending Vietnamese workers to work abroad under contracts from May 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 can borrow capital from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies with an interest rate of 0% and are not required to take measures to secure the loan to pay wages to employees working under labor contracts and participating in compulsory social insurance. Employers do not have bad debts at credit institutions and foreign bank branches at the time of loan application. The maximum loan amount is equal to the regional minimum wage for employees working under labor contracts with actual salary payment periods of up to 3 months. Loan term is less than 12 months.

12. For workers without labor contracts (freelance workers) and some other special subjects:

Based on specific conditions and budget capacity of the locality, provinces and cities develop criteria, determine the subjects and support levels, but the support level is not lower than VND 1,500,000/person/time or VND 50,000/person/day based on the actual number of days of temporary suspension of operations as required by the locality.