Prime Minister answers questions about handling social insurance arrears
The Prime Minister has just issued a document responding to questions about measures to handle social insurance arrears to protect legitimate rights and interests in social insurance.
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| People come to complete procedures to receive benefits at the Social Insurance Office of Cam Giang district. Photo: Manh Tu/VNA |
Previously, at the 6th Session of the 14th National Assembly, the Prime Minister received a Question Card from National Assembly delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy - National Assembly Delegation of Da Nang City: When will the Government take measures to handle outstanding social insurance debts to protect the legitimate rights and interests of employees regarding social insurance? Is this debt considered public debt?
Responding to the above question, the Prime Minister said that in implementing the provisions of Clause 7, Article 10 of the Law on Social Insurance, the Government and ministries, branches and localities have also deployed many measures to ensure the rights of workers.
Specifically, the regulation allows businesses that are facing difficulties and are late in paying social insurance and unemployment insurance to pay separately for each employee to promptly resolve benefits for employees who are eligible for social insurance regimes (illness, maternity, work accidents, occupational diseases, retirement and death) or record the process of paying social insurance for employees who have terminated their labor contracts or work contracts to promptly resolve unemployment insurance regimes or continue to participate in social insurance at new units and businesses.
Nghe An: List of 14 companies owing social insurance have their files transferred to the Provincial Police for investigation and handling
(Baonghean.vn) - Nghe An province's Social Insurance (SI) has just transferred relevant files and documents of 14 units with large amounts of outstanding social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance debts to Nghe An province's police for investigation and handling.
In addition, the Government has directed the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to send many documents to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Vietnam Social Security and People's Committees of centrally-run provinces and cities requesting to urge and direct the strict implementation of the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance, focusing on solutions to expand social insurance coverage, enhance compliance with the law, and limit evasion and late payment of social insurance.
This shows that in recent times, the Government and ministries, branches and localities have taken many measures to implement, thereby gradually limiting the situation of unpaid social insurance and unemployment insurance. The amount of debt has decreased compared to previous years; the rights of employees in units and enterprises that are in debt to pay social insurance and unemployment insurance have been resolved more promptly. However, the guarantee of employees' rights has not been thoroughly resolved in cases where enterprises go bankrupt, have their business licenses revoked or have foreign owners who have fled and still owe social insurance and unemployment insurance.
Developing policies to ensure the rights of employees in bankrupt enterprises, revoked business licenses, and foreign owners who have absconded and still owe social insurance and unemployment insurance premiums: Regarding this issue, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to research, propose solutions and develop documents to ensure the rights of employees.
However, in the process of researching and drafting documents to ensure the rights of employees in bankrupt enterprises, revoked business licenses, and foreign owners who have absconded but still owe social insurance and unemployment insurance, there are difficulties because the Social Insurance Law, the Employment Law and the State Budget Law do not stipulate the content of payment for this case, so it exceeds the authority of the Government. On the other hand, international practice also does not stipulate for these cases.
Therefore, to ensure the rights of workers, in the coming time, the Government will continue to direct ministries, branches and localities to continue to synchronously implement solutions to enhance compliance with the law on social insurance, limit the situation of evasion and late payment of social insurance and unemployment insurance; build an application to look up information on social insurance on mobile devices to promptly provide information on social insurance payment and benefits to workers; At the same time, conduct a review and compile specific statistics on the number of employees whose rights are affected in bankrupt enterprises, whose business licenses are revoked, and whose foreign owners have fled Vietnam (number of employees, debt period and salary for social insurance and unemployment insurance contributions of each specific individual) to serve as a basis for research and comprehensive impact assessment (avoid creating a precedent for other enterprises to take advantage of and continue to evade payments, affecting the rights of employees) and propose in the process of amending the Law on Social Insurance and other related laws, in line with the main tasks and solutions stated in Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW dated May 23, 2018 of the 7th Conference of the Central Executive Committee (term XII) on reforming social insurance policies.
The determination of public debt is carried out according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 1 and Article 4 of the Law on Public Debt Management. The Law on Public Debt Management also only regulates the relationships related to borrowing activities, use of loan capital, debt repayment and public debt management operations.
The social insurance debtor mentioned by the delegate is the enterprise (employer). Therefore, based on the above provisions, the social insurance debt of the enterprise is not a loan relationship and therefore cannot be determined as public debt.