Evasion and debt of social insurance in enterprises

Lesson 2: Who protects workers' rights?

Currently, the provincial Social Insurance has no official statistics on the number of employees who are not paying social insurance at units that are evading or owing social insurance. However, with tens of billions of dong in social insurance debt, it can be imagined that the number of people whose rights under the Labor Law are violated is also up to tens of thousands of people...

In the previous article, we mentioned the case of Truong Son Automobile Industry Joint Stock Company - the unit that owed the longest social insurance with a debt period of up to more than 13 years. This company initially had more than 200 workers; by April 2008, due to business losses, the company had to close completely, all workers became unemployed. It is worth mentioning that at that time, the above workers just learned that after many years of working for the company, they were not paid social insurance by the company. Mr. Nguyen Ba Hoang - a former worker of the company indignantly said: "The company paid us low salaries, and also deducted social insurance contributions. When the company could no longer pay salaries, we wanted to move to another place, when we asked the social insurance agency, we found out that because the company owed social insurance, we did not have a book. We wrote petitions and complained to many places but to this day it has not been resolved".

In addition to Truong Son Auto Corporation, there are many other businesses that are operating at a loss or have to stop production, such as Waterway Dredging Company 2, Central Traffic Construction Company.... When employees of these units go to the Social Insurance Agency to get their insurance books back and transfer to a new unit to continue paying insurance, they cannot withdraw their books because the unit still owes insurance money. Not only do they lose their jobs and cannot get their social insurance books back, but they also do not enjoy other benefits.

According to the report on the results of the implementation of the coordination program between the Provincial Labor Federation, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Provincial Social Insurance, by the end of 2010, the whole province only had 10% of employees participating in social insurance - low compared to the general target of the whole country (?!). Mr. Nguyen Dang Duong - Head of the Department of Labor - Wages - Social Insurance (Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) said: "When a business evades or owes social insurance, employees will not enjoy legitimate benefits such as sick leave, maternity leave, convalescence, work-related accidents, occupational diseases, health insurance and the latest regime is unemployment insurance. In case the business registers the social insurance salary of employees lower than the actual salary, it will affect the pension of employees when they retire. When an enterprise owes social insurance, the social insurance agency will only proceed to resolve the regime and close the social insurance book for employees at the time the enterprise stops paying social insurance and this directly affects the short-term benefits as well as the calculation of the social insurance payment period of employees when they retire".

According to Mr. Phan Sy Duong - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. Most employees in enterprises are not aware of their rights to demand to sign labor contracts, the right to pay social insurance correctly and sufficiently... They are only interested in the salary level, receiving their salary on time but do not know whether they have paid social insurance or not, what percentage of their monthly salary they have paid. When they know their rights are violated, there are only individual complaints but no collective struggles.

On the other hand, due to limited awareness of the Labor Law and Social Insurance policies, combined with pressure on employment and income, many workers are not interested in participating in Social Insurance. In many cases, they even protest when they see their salary being deducted by 6% to pay Social Insurance, and this inadvertently "helps" businesses avoid paying Social Insurance.

According to Mr. Nguyen Chi Tuyen - Deputy Director of the Provincial Social Insurance, in order to ensure social insurance benefits for employees, relevant levels and sectors need to step up propaganda to raise awareness of the law, Labor Law, and social insurance policies for both employees and employers. In addition, it is necessary to enhance the role and responsibility of grassroots trade unions in protecting employees' rights. If the above measures are not effective, then only legal intervention can hope to reclaim legitimate rights for employees.

Minh Quan