Solving "jobs" for grassroots union cadres

(Baonghean) - On February 8, 2010, the Central Party Secretariat issued Decision No. 289-QD/TW on promulgating the Regulations on cadres of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union. After 4 years of implementation, Nghe An has achieved certain results, notably removing difficulties in output for grassroots union cadres and rejuvenating cadres at all levels.

Rejuvenate the team, solve the "secret" of output

Decision No. 289-QD/T.Ư dated February 8, 2010 of the Central Party Secretariat stipulates the standards for district, commune and town-level Youth Union cadres holding positions not exceeding 35 years old. Since the regulations were implemented, with the attention and direction of Youth Union chapters, Party committees and authorities, reflected in recruitment, planning, training, fostering, arrangement, use; comments, evaluations, rotations, transfers to the implementation of regimes and policies... Key Youth Union cadres at the district and grassroots levels have been rejuvenated, their professional qualifications and skills have been constantly improved, gradually forming a class of young, dynamic and enthusiastic Youth Union cadres, initially contributing to improving the quality of Youth Union work and youth movements at the grassroots level. In particular, in the grassroots Party Congresses, Youth Union cadres are considered an important source of supplement for the political system from the district to the grassroots level. Many Youth Union cadres were given opportunities to grow and were assigned key positions in communes, wards and towns.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoc, Secretary of the Youth Union of Hung Phuc commune (Hung Nguyen) talked with reporters.

Hung Nguyen used to be one of the districts with a high proportion of over-age grassroots Youth Union cadres. Before the grassroots Party Congress for the 2010-2015 term, the whole district had 13/23 commune Youth Union secretaries aged 35-43. However, up to now, there are only two Youth Union secretaries aged 38-40 who have not been transferred due to lack of vacancies to arrange and assign. Mr. Cao Anh Duc, Secretary of the Hung Nguyen District Youth Union, said: In the past, the Youth Union organization has actively advised and proposed to the Party Committee to solve the output for over-age Youth Union cadres. The District Party Committee has also issued an official dispatch on grassroots Youth Union cadre work to direct and assign responsibilities to the Department of Internal Affairs and localities to pay attention to transferring jobs for Youth Union secretaries of communes and towns. Some Youth Union cadres were transferred to civil servant positions suitable for their professional qualifications and some other positions such as: Commune Military Commander, Vice President of Farmers' Association, President of the Front... thereby contributing to solving the problem of "uncertain" output for over-aged Youth Union cadres, meeting the need to rejuvenate and standardize the Youth Union cadre team.

In Thanh Chuong, there are also many preparations to arrange positions for Youth Union officials. Since the beginning of the term, many local Party committees have taken steps to improve personnel arrangements with the motto "wherever the Party committee is, there is personnel". Thanh Giang commune is one of the units that has been proactive in training human resources as well as "aiming for positions" for Youth Union officials who have reached adulthood. Thanh Giang commune Youth Union Secretary - Nguyen Thi Viet (born in 1979) has been a commune Youth Union official for 15 years. In the process of training, fostering, and planning officials, she was also assigned by the Party committee to attend intermediate political training and complete the Law University class. Therefore, after the Party Congress for the 2010-2015 term, she was transferred to the People's Committee to work as an office official. Mr. Nguyen Bao Hung, Secretary of the Thanh Giang Commune Party Committee, said: "Right from the time of appointing comrades to the Commune Youth Union Executive Committee, we have had a direction for Youth Union officials to study for degrees appropriate to their abilities and strengths to improve their professional qualifications as well as political level, and then have a plan to prioritize suitable positions for Youth Union officials who are over age."

After the Party Congress for the 2010-2015 term, many districts have made breakthroughs in the use of young cadres, including Youth Union cadres. In Tan Ky district, 3 District Youth Union cadres were added to the District Party Committee, and 2 comrades were given opportunities to mature. At the commune level, the over-age Youth Union cadres have been basically resolved by the Party Committee and government. Some districts only have 1 or 2 over-age Youth Union cadres waiting for arrangement and assignment due to lack of vacancies, such as Nam Dan, Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, Que Phong, Thanh Chuong, Anh Son, and Hoang Mai Town...

Mr. Chu Duc Thai, Head of the Provincial Youth Union Organizing Committee, said: In order to promote the effectiveness of advisory work and gain the attention, direction and support of Party committees and authorities, the Provincial Youth Union Standing Committee has proactively worked and sent documents to Party committees, leaders of districts, cities and Party committees of units with Youth Union organizations under the Provincial Youth Union, requesting attention to reviewing and arranging work for Youth Union cadres and over-age Youth Union cadres. For units having difficulties in arranging cadres to participate in Party committees, units with many over-age Youth Union cadres, the Provincial Youth Union Standing Committee has worked with Party committees at those units, proposing attention and consideration of appropriate work arrangements. In addition, Youth Union chapters at all levels have proactively advised Party committees and leaders of the People's Committee to organize direct dialogues with cadres, union members and youth throughout the province. The Provincial Party Committee's Organizing Committee also directly worked with the Provincial Youth Union Executive Committee to review the entire organization, including over-age Youth Union cadres. Since then, many issues related to the implementation of policies, regimes, and Youth Union cadre work have been paid attention to and resolved.

Since the implementation of the Youth Union Cadre Regulations, the quality of the Youth Union cadres in the whole province has had positive changes. Youth Union cadres from the provincial to grassroots levels generally meet the standards of professional qualifications, political level, and age as prescribed in the regulations, meeting the requirements of the working position. Many Youth Union cadres have actively and proactively studied to improve their qualifications; innovated and created in their work; had many initiatives and experiences in directing and organizing activities. From 2010 to now, 18 cadres at the Provincial Youth Union office, 45 secretaries and deputy secretaries of the district-level Youth Union and more than 200 specialized cadres at the commune level have matured and transferred to other jobs. Over-age Youth Union cadres are considered and assigned to other jobs, suitable to their capacity and professional qualifications. From 2010 to present, the whole province has had 178 over-age Youth Union cadres assigned to new tasks. Currently, the whole province still has 35 over-age grassroots Youth Union cadres who have not been assigned to jobs.

Identify difficulties and problems

Although the Youth Union chapters and Party committees and authorities at all levels have made great efforts, in many localities there is still a phenomenon of "stacking of cars". Many grassroots Youth Union cadres are over the age of the Youth Union (over 35 years old) but have not been transferred to work. Most of them have decades of experience in the work. Localities with a number of commune-level Youth Union secretaries who are over the age or are waiting for assignment include Do Luong with 5 people, aged 36 - 39, Yen Thanh with 5 people, aged 36 - 40, Ky Son with 6 people, of which the oldest person is Mr. Luong Van Chan, 42 years old, Secretary of the Youth Union of Nam Can commune.

The reason for this situation is that some Party committees have not really paid attention to the arrangement, rotation, training, fostering, and planning of cadre resources, so there are not many positions to arrange work for Youth Union cadres, especially those who are over the age prescribed in the regulations. On the other hand, the number of positions at the commune level is limited, while the positions in the commune's operating apparatus are full, so if you want to arrange, you have to wait for someone to retire, wait for a vacant position to "replace". In some cases, the "input" quality of grassroots Youth Union cadres in many places is still low, and during the working process, they have not arranged time to study and improve their qualifications to meet the criteria for the title of civil servant of the commune, ward, or town, so they lose the opportunity to be rotated, assigned to another position or to be considered for recruitment and civil servant examination.

After many years of dedication, most of the over-age Youth Union cadres wish to mature into the Youth Union and be transferred to other suitable positions. Many of them are very concerned because "being over-age and still "standing" in the Youth Union is not suitable, it is easy to follow the beaten path, lack creativity in activities, and the spirit and enthusiasm also decrease...". There is a child who has finished high school and has been admitted to the Youth Union while the father is still the commune Youth Union secretary, so there is a situation where both father and son participate in Youth Union activities...

For example, Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, Secretary of the Thanh Nho Commune Youth Union (Thanh Chuong), has been a Youth Union official since 1999, holding the position of Secretary of the Commune Youth Union since 2006. He himself was an excellent Youth Union official who received many Certificates of Merit from the Provincial Youth Union and the Central Youth Union; The Commune Youth Union has been in the top of the district for many years because the Youth Union Secretary is enthusiastic and creative in directing and attracting local youth. However, because of his age, his enthusiasm and creativity have also decreased over the years. He is now 39 years old but has not been transferred because in suitable positions, the team is stable and young, so it is very difficult to find a position for him. According to Mr. Trung, because he has not matured, the Youth Union official who is the next deputy secretary is also "marking time" even though he has enough capacity and experience. As for Mr. Nguyen Van Hoc, Secretary of the Youth Union of Hung Phuc commune (Hung Nguyen), born in 1975, he grew up from the grassroots Youth Union movement and officially took on the position of Secretary of the commune Youth Union since 2009. Now 40 years old, although he has completed the Intermediate Cultural Management and Intermediate Political Education, he has not yet matured into the Youth Union. He confided: “Although the Youth Union work in the locality has achieved good results in recent years. But to be honest, at my age, it is difficult to integrate with the 9x generation, because the age gap will lead to differences in life views and thinking...”.

The reason is that the cadres in the commune are all young, and there are no vacant positions to arrange for Youth Union cadres. Comrade Tran Van Phi, the Party Committee of Hung Phuc Commune Party Committee, also a former Youth Union cadre, said: In the case of Mr. Hoc, the Party Committee has also oriented him to the position of Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Council, but we have to wait until 2018 when the person holding this position retires to "fit" him in. The recent Party Congress of the commune still structured Mr. Hoc together with the Deputy Secretary of the Commune Youth Union into the Party Committee Executive Committee and had a direction to arrange Mr. Hoc to "temporarily" work in the position of the Party Committee office, but it is also difficult because Mr. Hoc is the head of the organization, a full-time cadre, now switching to a part-time position, he will be disadvantaged in terms of benefits, not only low benefits but also not being paid social insurance. If Mr. Hoc is left to wait until 2018 to be arranged, the Deputy Secretary of the Commune Youth Union, born in 1982, will also face the risk of being over-age...".

In reality, in addition to the difficulties caused by the establishment of the commune level, there is also the cause of the limited capacity of the Youth Union cadres, which puts the Party Committee in a "difficult" situation. Many union cadres do well in the movement, but when they are transferred to work in a specialized field, even the Youth Union cadres themselves are hesitant and afraid that they cannot handle it. For example, in Hung Nguyen district, there are 2 commune Youth Union secretaries who are over the age limit, with decades of experience in Youth Union work, but up to now, they have had to resign because they do not have the expertise or qualifications, so it is not known what position to assign them to.

According to Mr. Le Quoc Khanh, Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Board: "Reality shows that wherever the Party Committee is interested in and does a good job in planning cadres, the output for the Youth Union cadres will also be more favorable. Therefore, in order to rotate Youth Union cadres in a timely manner, ensuring the right age of maturity as prescribed in Regulation 289 to avoid the phenomenon of "congestion", Party Committees at all levels need to coordinate with Youth Union chapters at all levels to proactively develop a specific, long-term roadmap from recruitment to training, fostering, evaluating, and planning cadres... However, the most important thing is that the Youth Union cadres themselves must "affirm themselves", have the awareness of "self-standardization" by self-studying, self-improvement, proactively participating in training courses suitable to their capacity and actual needs in the locality, avoiding the situation where they are good at being a movement cadre but when they reach adulthood, they do not know where to place them because they lack qualifications and professional qualifications that are not suitable for the assigned position". Another issue that needs attention is the work of creating resources, building positive factors, and improving the quality of Youth Union cadres from "input" to reduce difficulties for "output".

Khanh Ly - Thanh Nga