When wife gives birth, husband is allowed to take up to 14 days off

The revised Law on Social Insurance, effective from January 1, 2016, stipulates that male workers are entitled to take up to 14 days off work in case their wives give birth to twins and have to undergo surgery.

Speaking to the press on the morning of January 26, Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Nga, Director of the Department of Social Insurance, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the revised Law on Social Insurance has many new points regarding maternity regime, including the regulation that male workers are allowed to take leave when their wives give birth.

Specifically, the husband is entitled to 5 working days off in case his wife gives birth naturally, 7 days off in case his wife has a caesarean section, or gives birth before 32 weeks. If his wife gives birth to twins, the husband is entitled to 10 days off; from triplets onwards, he is entitled to 3 more working days off for each additional child. If his wife gives birth to twins or more and has to have a caesarean section, the husband is entitled to 14 days off.

"This will create favorable conditions for young couples living far from their families, especially workers' couples in industrial zones. This new regulation is highly appreciated by international labor organizations," said Ms. Nga.

Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Nga, Director of the Social Insurance Department, said: "The new regulations on maternity and retirement benefits are highly appreciated by international labor organizations." Photo: Hoang Phuong.

In addition, the amended law also supplements maternity benefits for female workers who are surrogate mothers and mothers who request surrogacy for humanitarian purposes to comply with the Law on Marriage and Family from January 1, 2015, which allows female workers to be surrogate mothers for humanitarian purposes.

"We aim to regulate the maximum maternity leave for female workers who are hired to be surrogates to be 4 months. Because the 2012 Labor Law allows female workers to take at least 2 months off before giving birth and 2 months after giving birth to recover their health. The maternity leave of the person who is hired to be surrogate will depend on the number of months old that the child is transferred to the surrogate. If the child is transferred after 6 months, the mother will definitely not be entitled to maternity leave. If the child is less than 6 months old, the legitimate mother will be entitled to it until the child is 6 months old," said Ms. Nga.

In response to the question of whether the social insurance fund will have to be expanded when the mother who is a surrogate mother and the female worker who is a surrogate mother are both entitled to maternity benefits and social insurance, Ms. Nga informed: "We have taken into account the fund factor before including this point. Waiting for the Law on Marriage and Family to have specific instructions on surrogacy, the Law on Social Insurance will also have specific instructions on this content."

The regulations on maternity leave also add provisions on conditions for enjoying maternity leave in case of female employees who have to take leave from work to take care of their pregnancy. In this case, female employees only need to pay social insurance for at least 3 months in the 12 months before giving birth, instead of 6 months as before.

Regarding retirement, the amended law stipulates that female workers who are full-time or part-time workers at the commune, ward, or town level who participate in social insurance and have worked for at least 15 years and are 55 years old are entitled to pensions. The new law also stipulates an increase in the level of health care and recovery benefits after illness per day to 30% of the basic salary instead of the previous 25%.

In addition to the maternity regime, new pension calculation methods, and pension payment methods, the amended law also adds three groups of subjects that must participate in compulsory social insurance, namely contract workers from 1 to less than 3 months, non-professional workers at the commune, ward, and town levels, and foreign citizens working in Vietnam.

The rights of employees in the field of social insurance are increased when they can self-manage their social insurance books, and every 6 months, the enterprise will provide information on the status of social insurance payments. By 2020, the social insurance books will be replaced by electronic social insurance cards. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also proposed to add to the Criminal Code the crime of evading and appropriating social insurance payments.

According to Vnexpress