On the afternoon of June 6, in his closing remarks to the question-and-answer session with Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue emphasized that some shortcomings are emerging in the social insurance issue. Some of these have been prolonged but there are no fundamental solutions, such as delays, evasion of social insurance payments, increasing trends in withdrawing social insurance at one time, and taking advantage of policies related to social insurance, etc.
"No need to wait for additional regulations"
Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue
The National Assembly Chairman emphasized that, through the question-and-answer session, he requested the Government, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant ministries and branches to complete legal policies on social insurance, prepare documents for the revised Social Insurance Law project to submit to the National Assembly for comments at the 6th session (October 2023) for consideration and approval at the session in early 2024.
National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue also requested to effectively overcome the situation of late payment, evasion of social insurance payment, receiving one-time social insurance, borrowing records of other people participating in social insurance, purchasing and collecting social insurance books of employees...
The National Assembly Chairman also requested the Supreme People's Court to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor to promptly resolve obstacles in lawsuit procedures related to social insurance. At the same time, consider accepting and bringing to trial a number of cases of social insurance evasion.
"The questions from the delegates as well as the answers from the minister show that we have every basis to handle this matter, without having to wait for any additional or final regulations," the National Assembly Chairman emphasized.
"Not a single case has been resolved yet"
Previously, the issue of handling the situation of evasion and late payment of social insurance was questioned by many delegates to Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung.
Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung answered questions on the afternoon of June 6.
Delegate Ly Van Huan (Thai Nguyen delegation) questioned: why up to now there has been no case of civil lawsuit for late payment of insurance, nor has there been any case of criminal prosecution for evasion of social insurance payment even though this has been stipulated in the Civil Code and the Penal Code?
Responding, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said, "We are very concerned about this issue." Mr. Dung said that more than a month ago, he worked with Ho Chi Minh City and also raised 84 cases in Ho Chi Minh City and asked the city to handle them.
"Up to now, we have not been able to handle any case of social insurance evasion according to the Penal Code. The Penal Code clearly stipulates it, the Social Insurance Law is clear, even the Supreme People's Court's Judicial Council has issued a resolution, but it has not been handled yet," said Mr. Dung.
The Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs explained that the reason is because there is no consensus on the meaning between "evading payment" and "late payment", and they cannot be distinguished.
"If the content is not clear, we cannot prosecute," said Mr. Dung, adding that he had discussed the matter but the police said there was no solid basis and could not prosecute.
"We certainly have to consider this carefully. We will discuss it with the authorities," Mr. Dung added, saying that Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Social Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh had also reminded him several times to urge localities to handle the matter.
"It cannot be said that we are helpless"
Not satisfied with Minister Dung's answer, delegate Truong Trong Nghia (HCMC delegation) said he was very surprised when reading the information that 2.79 million people owed social insurance contributions for 1 month or more, the total debt was more than 14,000 billion VND and 213,000 people had bad debts.
"The situation of social insurance debt is extremely serious and prolonged," Mr. Nghia commented, and at the same time recommended that the investigation agency, the prosecutor's office as well as the court, especially the National Assembly's Judiciary Committee, get involved in this matter.
Emphasizing that there is no legal basis to criminally prosecute cases of social insurance evasion, Mr. Nghia said that social insurance evasion leaves serious consequences for workers because the money has been deducted from the workers' salaries.
Delegate Truong Trong Nghia affirmed that social insurance evasion is a serious and long-standing problem and it cannot be said that the legal system is powerless to handle it.
"We also have to review the responsibility of the supervisory agency. If the debt is less than 1 month, you let it go, but if it is more than 3 months, you still do nothing, up to 6 months, up to 1 year, even up to 10 years. There are cases like Haprosimex Company as reported in the press, from 2011 until now, it owes social insurance to more than 400 people but still can't do anything. I think our current legal system cannot be said to be powerless, unable to handle this situation," said delegate Truong Trong Nghia.
Responding, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said what delegate Nghia said was "completely correct" and that "this is also our wish".
"A month ago, we also advised the Prime Minister to issue a document assigning a competent agency to preside over this issue. We hope that agency will do a good job and we will handle violations in a methodical, fundamental manner, in accordance with legal regulations," Minister Dung informed.
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