National Assembly deputies support increasing public sector wages and reducing private sector working hours

Salary reform is desirable

When implementing salary reform, the public sector will no longer calculate salaries based on coefficients but will have a table of positions and leadership titles in the political system (including public service units) from the central to communal levels; a table of professional and technical salaries for civil servants and public employees who do not hold leadership positions, and a table of salaries for the armed forces.

Delegate Nguyen Tao - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Lam Dong province said that salary reform from July 1, 2024 is the most desirable thing for civil servants and public employees.

The delegate especially noted that from previous experience, it can be seen that the main cause of social negatives is that income does not guarantee a living, leading to substandard behaviors such as petty corruption or harassment.

“When conducting disciplinary action, we discovered a major and extremely important cause related to income. A student graduating from university, with 6-7 years of medical training or more than 4 years for a bachelor of normal majors, but the salary is only 3 million - 3.5 million VND. With such a salary, how can one live in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City...”, Mr. Tao shared.

National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Tao talks in the hallway of the National Assembly (Photo: Hoang Bich).

Therefore, Mr. Tao believes that salary reform aims at ensuring fairness in salary, bonus level, and job assignment level. From there, it creates fairness in income of workers in the same group.

This will be a policy stream that creates great peace of mind for current officials and civil servants. At the same time, the State apparatus will consider streamlining the payroll to make it compact and promote each individual. From there, ensuring job positions, right people, right jobs, right benefits.

The government has prepared resources for salary reform, about VND500,000 billion, for the roadmap from now until 2030. In addition to reform, this creates a very fair playing field to attract an intelligent workforce.

Referring to special allowances, delegate Nguyen Tao specifically stated that civil servants and public employees will have 70% of their fixed salary, the remaining 20% ​​will be for specialized work and 10% will be for rewards.

“We have specific industries and allowances. For example, I have an allowance for a full-time member of parliament. For other specific industries such as nuclear medicine doctors, daily contact like that must have allowances commensurate with the work. Or for jobs that must be performed in harsh conditions, those people must have a corresponding regime, toxic allowances... and cannot have equal allowances. Only then can we ensure fairness,” said Mr. Tao.

Reduced private sector working hours

Discussing further in the National Assembly corridor, delegate Pham Trong Nghia (Lang Son delegation) said that the current regional minimum wage is still not enough to meet the difficult living conditions of private sector workers compared to the current inflation rate.

It is known that the regional minimum wage from July 1, 2022 to present is being applied according to 4 regions including: Region 1 is 4,680,000 VND/month; Region 2 is 4,160,000 VND/month; Region 3 is 3,640,000 VND/month; Region 4 is 3,250,000 VND/month.

“Therefore, I really hope that the National Wage Council will soon negotiate and submit to the Government an increase in the regional minimum wage for workers, preferably implemented simultaneously with the public sector wage reform on July 1, 2024,” Mr. Nghia suggested.

The National Assembly representative said that working hours in the public sector have been cut to 40 hours, while the private sector still maintains 48 hours.

Delegate Pham Trong Nghia also said that the salary of private sector workers is currently not subject to a coefficient, their total income is not high while their living expenses are affected by inflation in recent times.

Moreover, the period from the increase in regional minimum wage (2022) to July 1, 2024 is quite long. While previously, regional minimum wage increased steadily every year, except during the Covid-19 period.

Regarding working hours, Mr. Nghia said that since 1999, in the public sector, Vietnam has cut the Saturday off work hours to 40 hours, while the private sector still maintains 48 hours. According to statistics from the International Labor Organization (ILO), out of 154 countries, only 2 have working hours over 48 hours a week; 1/3 of countries apply 48 hours/week like Vietnam; and 2/3 of countries apply less than 48 hours.

“Overtime in Vietnam is also relatively high compared to the general level. There is no reason for a developed country to have workers work by the hour,” Mr. Nghia emphasized.

Wage reform is the driving force of economic growth

Previously, on October 24, discussing the results of the implementation of the socio-economic development plan in the group, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that implementing the wage reform policy required a great effort from all levels and sectors. Otherwise, there would be no resources for wage reform.

This session, the National Assembly officially approved the salary reform policy. This is the highlight and mark of this session of the National Assembly, both historical and topical, creating a joyful and exciting mood for the staff, civil servants, public employees and society.

“Salary reform not only improves the lives of officials, civil servants, public employees, workers and their families, but also importantly improves labor productivity and national competitiveness. Salary reform is the driving force for economic growth. Because when salaries are raised, it will affect supply and demand...”, said Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra .

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/dbqh-ung-ho-tang-luong-khu-vuc-cong-giam-gio-lam-khu-vuc-tu-a633759.html