137 medical staff suddenly lost their jobs
These officers belong to units of Lai Chau Department of Health, and their labor contracts were terminated from April 1.
On April 3, the Ministry of Health requested the Lai Chau Provincial Department of Health to verify the issue.; coordinate with relevant agencies to report, explain and propose to competent authorities for consideration and settlement in accordance with the provisions of law.
The 137 medical staff mentioned above are all under labor contracts according to the decision of the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Health of Lai Chau in the period of 2011-2017. Faced with the shortage of human resources while recruitment was not timely, the Department of Health signed labor contracts to fill the vacant positions based on the annual staffing allocation.
At the end of 2016, after conducting an inspection of internal affairs in the health sector, the inspection team of Lai Chau Department of Home Affairs concluded that the signing of labor contracts in the health sector at that time was not in accordance with regulations.
All cases that have signed indefinite-term labor contracts at units under the Provincial Department of Health in the past must be converted to fixed-term labor contracts (1 year).
The number of people with contracts to perform professional duties is 258, of which 25 people have contracts with the Department of Home Affairs and 233 people have contracts with the Department of Health. In September 2017, the Lai Chau Department of Health announced the plan to recruit health sector officials in 2017.
The exam results showed that 174 people passed, of which 80/258 people under contract were recruited; the remaining 137 cases were not recruited and did not participate in the recruitment so they had to quit their jobs.
Three days after receiving notice of termination from the Lai Chau Department of Health, many health workers were still shocked to officially become unemployed after many years of service. Mr. Ma Dinh Tuyen, previously the deputy head of the Nam Ban Commune Health Station, Nam Nhun, Lai Chau, was one of them.
According to Mr. Tuyen, he has been working since 2011 and has been signed a contract by the Department of Home Affairs according to the staffing quota. However, recently, the Health Department inspector informed him and many others that they do not have a recruitment decision from the Department of Home Affairs and must participate in an open recruitment exam.
“This exam also included new people. Those of us who have worked for a long time did not receive any preferential treatment. As a result, 137 of us did not score enough to pass the exam, so the Department of Home Affairs requested the Department of Health to terminate our labor contracts,” said Mr. Tuyen.
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Many long-time health workers in Lai Chau participated in the civil service exam but failed and lost their jobs. Photo:VNA |
In the same situation, Ms. Ho Thi Thuong, working at Lai Chau Province Traditional Medicine Hospital, said that the recruitment notice of the Department of Health stated that the contract was within the staffing quota, and many people were later given salary increases. She was also appointed as head nurse.
These workers claimed that they had been signed to indefinite contracts, but were “forced” to switch to fixed-term contracts, and when they failed the qualifying exam, their contracts were terminated. Meanwhile, based on Decree 29 of 2012, they should have been considered for special recruitment because they had more than three years of working experience...
Mr. Tran Van Van, representative of Lai Chau Department of Home Affairs, cited Official Letter 1568 of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2014, which stipulates that special recruitment of civil servants is prohibited or that only labor contracts are signed to completely replace recruitment. Civil servants must be recruited and complete their probation; only after recruitment can they sign a contract; signing a contract does not mean that they have been recruited.
The parties said they would review the hiring of these 137 cases.