More than 90% of National Assembly delegates agree to increase retirement age to 60 for women and 62 for men.

Delegates meeting in the hall. Photo: Quochoi.vn

On the morning of November 20, the National Assembly voted to pass the Draft Amended Labor Code, with 435/453 delegates in favor, accounting for 90.06%.

The draft Labor Code (amended) consists of 17 chapters and 220 articles. The draft was submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for consideration and comments at the 7th session and at the 8th session of the 14th National Assembly. The Standing Committee of the National Assembly reported on the acceptance and explanation and the National Assembly discussed it on October 23, 2019. There were 54 comments from National Assembly deputies.

Basically, the opinions of the delegates agreed with the Report of the National Assembly Standing Committee on receiving, explaining and revising the draft Labor Code (amended) (hereinafter referred to as the Code).

Retirement age to increase to 60 for women and 62 for men

Regarding retirement age (Clause 2, Article 169), the National Assembly agreed to Option 1: “The retirement age of employees in normal working conditions will be adjusted according to the roadmap until reaching 62 years of age for male employees in 2028 and 60 years of age for female employees in 2035. From 2021, the retirement age of employees in normal working conditions will be 60 years and 3 months for male employees and 55 years and 4 months for female employees; after that, each year it will increase by 3 months for male employees and 4 months for female employees”.

Previously, many National Assembly deputies agreed with the regulations according to Option 1 on the roadmap for increasing the retirement age, that is, by 2028, the first male worker will retire at the age of 62 and by 2035, the first female worker will retire at the age of 60; Some National Assembly deputies agreed with Option 2 and said that applying the same roadmap for increasing the retirement age is difficult to apply to different labor groups; some opinions proposed to keep the current retirement age; some opinions proposed that for female workers, the retirement age should only be 58 years old; some opinions suggested that for direct labor groups and some special laborers, it should be considered to keep it as in the current Labor Code...

The National Assembly Standing Committee directed to ask for opinions from National Assembly deputies. As a result, 371 National Assembly deputies participated in giving opinions on this content, of which 280 National Assembly deputies agreed with Option 1.

About normal working hours,The draft stipulates that normal working hours will remain the same as prescribed in the current Labor Code for the time being" and "there will be a roadmap to reduce normal working hours at the appropriate time".

The National Assembly assigned the Government to propose, based on the socio-economic development situation, to reduce normal working hours to less than 48 hours/week; at the same time, maintain the regulation "The State encourages employers to implement a 40-hour work week for employees" in Article 105 on normal working hours. On that basis, the Government will have specific implementation regulations; in particular, it is necessary to coordinate with the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the organization representing employers to provide guidance on effective collective bargaining mechanisms to gradually reduce normal working hours, ensuring harmony of interests of all parties.

Regarding the expansion of the maximum overtime agreement framework,The National Assembly agreed to keep the maximum overtime agreement framework as in the current Labor Code, but it is necessary to clearly state that the monthly overtime is 40 hours/month instead of 30 hours/month and add specific regulations on cases where overtime can be organized from over 200 hours to 300 hours in 1 year.

About holidays, Tet,The National Assembly has decided to add one more day off in the year on the day adjacent to National Day September 2. Thus, on our National Day, workers will have two days off. This is Independence Day, and is also an opportunity for workers to have more time to participate in activities to celebrate National Day September 2, increasing the political significance and enhancing national pride in the event of President Ho Chi Minh reading the Declaration of Independence at Ba Dinh Square, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. At the same time, it meets the wishes of workers to have more time to rest, reunite with their families and help children, pupils and students prepare for the new school year.

Previously, the National Assembly also voted separately on three issues regarding overtime, adding a holiday, and organizing employee representatives at the workplace.

Specifically, regarding the expansion of the maximum overtime agreement framework stipulated in Article 107, the Code does not increase the maximum overtime agreement framework from 300 hours to 400 hours/year but stipulates the same as the current Labor Code, however, the revised Code increases the maximum overtime limit per month from 30 hours to 40 hours and specifically adds cases where overtime can be organized from over 200 hours to 300 hours in a year. The result was that 433/454 delegates agreed (accounting for 89.65%).

Regarding the regulation to add 1 more day off on the day adjacent to National Day September 2, 452/455 delegates agreed (accounting for 93.58%).

Regulations in Chapter XIII on organization of workers' representatives at the grassroots level, 445/448 delegates approved (accounting for 92.13%).

This Law will come into effect from January 1, 2021.