Direct workers do not want to increase retirement age

The story of raising the retirement age has become "hot" again in the past few days with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs submitting two proposals to the Government, one is to keep the current retirement age, the other is to increase the retirement age according to the roadmap. In fact, this story is receiving a lot of public attention because it affects tens of millions of workers. Increasing or not increasing the retirement age is receiving many conflicting opinions.

Most workers disagree

Nearly 70% of workers want to keep the retirement age the same, 55 for women and 60 for men, while the rest want to reduce the retirement age compared to the current age. This is the result of a survey recently conducted by the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions with more than 4,000 workers in industrial zones.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Quang Tho, Director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions, it is understandable that most workers do not want to increase the retirement age. Workers working in harsh production conditions such as footwear, chemicals, road construction... not only want to retire at the current age but also want to retire earlier, there are even cases where women aged 48-49 and men aged 50-52 want to retire because they have to work in a very difficult environment, their health is affected so they want to retire early.

“In reality, in industrial zones, the majority of direct workers (80-90%) are women up to 50 years old, men up to 55 years old, who are considered to have low labor productivity and are always fired by business owners because of reduced productivity, and at the same time, they avoid paying social insurance to receive pensions, so extending their working age is unthinkable for them,” said Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Quang Tho.

Most workers do not want to increase the retirement age.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Quang Tho, for the direct labor group, there should be no need to raise the retirement age. As for the indirect labor group, when they reach retirement age, agencies and enterprises can consult their opinions. If the workers themselves want to work more, or if the enterprises have a need, they can continue to employ them. However, if the workers want to rest, the enterprises and agencies must respect the wishes of the workers.

Disagreeing with the increase in retirement age, at the Conference of the Presidium of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) on the morning of December 21, Mr. Mai Duc Chinh, Vice President of the VGCL, presented a report on a number of issues regarding the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Labor Code.

The report presented some of the union's participation in the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Labor Code. Regarding the issue of retirement age, the report expressed disagreement with raising the retirement age for workers in the direct production and service sectors.

For the administrative and career sector, it is possible to consider raising the retirement age, but there must be an appropriate roadmap to minimize the impact on employment opportunities for young workers and ensure stability in the country's socio-economic development plan.

Is it suitable?

According to statistics from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the number of people paying social insurance for one beneficiary is decreasing. In 1996, 217 people paid social insurance, and one person received a pension. In 2000, the number of people paying decreased to 34, in 2009 it was 11, and currently for every 9 people paying, one person receives a pension...

These are all reasons that cause the pension fund to be unbalanced. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs believes that every country must build a reasonable balance between the period of social insurance contribution and the period of pension receipt, the level of social insurance contribution and the level of pension receipt. Therefore, increasing the retirement age is considered one of the options to balance the social insurance fund.

However, according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, if the retirement age increase is approved, it will be implemented according to a roadmap. Agreeing with the proposal to increase the retirement age and implement it according to a roadmap, according to Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, former Director of the Institute of Labor, Labor Science and Social Affairs, this is a scientific solution, and such gradual adjustment will not cause disruption to units.

On the insurance agency side, there will not be much disruption because the records have been processed by machines, applying information technology, not difficult to handle. However, mentioning that increasing the retirement age is to balance the social insurance fund, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Quang Tho, Director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions, said that increasing the retirement age must be separated from the insurance fund. It is impossible to force the retirement age of 60 million workers to increase because of the issue of social insurance fund management.

Increasing the retirement age is a sensitive issue, and also related to the rights of workers, so consulting the opinions of those directly involved in production is necessary to have an objective and multi-dimensional assessment and perspective.

“This cannot be done right now, but requires a roadmap of decades, when the number of young workers waiting for jobs and unemployment is not as high as at present. Because raising the retirement age is an issue of great political and social significance, affecting many people, it cannot be rushed, but requires a roadmap based on scientific research based on the practical conditions of Vietnam,” said Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Quang Tho.

According to Mr. Ha Dinh Bon, Director of the Legal Department (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs), the unit assigned to draft the Law Project amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2012 Labor Code, increasing the retirement age to balance the Social Insurance Fund is an incomplete and not comprehensive understanding, and is not the fundamental cause.

Mr. Bon said that workers paying for a few more years cannot save the Social Insurance Fund, but only contributes a small part to better ensure the balance of the pension and death benefit funds in the long term. The current problem of imbalance in the input and output of the insurance fund is due to the contribution level not corresponding to the benefit level, the high contribution and benefit level over a long period of time and the management mechanism...

According to CAND