National Assembly delegates from Nghe An province agree to increase the age of military service for military officers.

On the morning of November 5, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army. Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong chaired the session.

The delegation of Nghe An province was led by comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Head of the Central Economic Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council.

Speaking at the discussion, delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An agreed with increasing the age of active service for officers and said that through contact with voters of the military sector, she basically received high consensus.

Accordingly, the maximum age limit for officers serving in the army is proposed to increase to 50 for lieutenants, 52 for majors, 54 for lieutenants, 56 for colonels, 58 for colonels, and 60 for generals.

Because according to current regulations, the maximum age limit for officers serving in the army according to military rank for lieutenant officers is only 46 years old, major is 48 years old, lieutenant colonel is 51 years old, lieutenant colonel is 54 years old; colonel is 57 for men, 55 for women; general is 60 for men, 55 for women.

The above regulation comes with the gap between the active service age of officers and the retirement age of workers in society becoming larger due to changes in the retirement age stipulated in the 2019 Labor Code.

Not only that, according to the delegate, the age of active service of officers and professional soldiers is stipulated in the Law on Professional Soldiers, and there is also a difference between workers and defense civil servants.

"For example, with the retirement age of lieutenant officers being 46 years old, currently (in 2024) lieutenant officers will have to retire 10 years earlier (for women), 15 years (for men) and 6 years earlier than professional soldiers," the delegate cited and said that this is an inadequacy.

Besides, according to the delegate, if the Law is not amended to extend the service age of officers, it will lead to a huge waste of human resources. Because reality shows that the basic officer force is well-trained. For example, in Nghe An, over 90% of officers are formally trained, with university and postgraduate degrees accounting for over 73%.

On the other hand, applying the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance, early retirement makes the pension of officers low. According to the reflection of voters in the military sector in Nghe An, from 2018 to present, at the Military Command of Nghe An province, among retired officers, up to 41% of officers enjoy a pension rate of 56-66%; 44% enjoy a pension rate of 67-74%, only 13% enjoy 75% or more.

At early retirement age (from 48 to 51 years old at the rank of Major or Lieutenant Colonel), the burden of income to support the family and pay for children's education still remains, especially when the trend of getting married and having children late is like today.

“However, it is not easy for them to find suitable jobs, so they mainly have to do manual labor jobs… Therefore, raising the age of active service for officers, which means raising the pension rate of officers, will contribute to increasing average income, improving living standards, and promoting spending,” the delegate stated the positive impact of the policy.

However, regarding the proposal to extend the service age by 5 years "when the army has a need, the officer has sufficient political and moral qualities, is good at expertise, profession, and is in good health" as in the draft Law, delegate Thai Thi An Chung said that it is still general and unclear and suggested that the Government or the Minister of National Defense should be decentralised to regulate the extension of the service age of officers in special and necessary cases; this is both consistent with the decentralisation policy and with reality.

Regarding some policies and regimes for officers, the delegate of Nghe An delegation expressed his agreement with the addition of the regulation that "officers are considered for salary increase ahead of schedule if they have outstanding achievements in combat or are commended in work and scientific research" and "officers who are not arranged for annual leave due to mission requirements will, in addition to their salary, be paid an additional amount equal to their salary for days not taken off". These regulations are completely consistent with the Labor Code and compatible with a number of related laws.

Basically agreeing on the amendments and supplements to the health care policy for officers and their relatives on active duty, delegates proposed that the policy regulating the subjects who are relatives of officers on active duty who are covered by health insurance from the State budget should be included in the Law on Health Insurance, which is also being amended by the National Assembly in this session, to ensure consistency instead of being included in the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army; at the same time, it was proposed to add the subjects who are the spouses of officers on active duty who are granted health insurance cards and are entitled to medical examination and treatment at medical examination and treatment facilities according to the provisions of law.