My cousin, Ms. Van, has just received her 12th month of unemployment insurance after more than a year of leaving the company she worked for 14 years.
Being a factory worker is hard work, standing in the factory all day, coming home at night exhausted, but my aunt persevered and did not "jump back and forth" like many others. She said that throughout her youth, from the time she was single until she got married and had children, she worked as a factory worker in one place.
When she first came to the city, she didn't know anything about the policies for workers. "It's lucky to have a job," she said, adding that she had a monthly salary to cover her living expenses, saved up for her children's education, sent some gifts to both sets of parents, and then returned home for Tet to be white and plump so that the neighbors could see, "it seems like it's good to be in the city."
Working for a while, seeing people quit and people join, she gradually grasped the benefits of signing a labor contract and the accompanying support policies. She understood the value of the monthly insurance payments that employees and employers make together according to the law.
Workers work in a garment factory in Hai Duong (Illustration: Tien Tuan)
The woman in her 40s can now speak fluently about social insurance regulations and unemployment insurance conditions. "I am illiterate, but I try to learn about the regulations on employee benefits. I worked hard in the garment factory without knowing, so if I miss out on benefits, it is my fault," she said. Of course, the caring human resources department will guide workers when they quit, but "it is better to proactively learn."
A few days ago, she sent me a link to an article about a proposal to expand the scope of unemployment insurance participation, according to which it is expected that employees with a labor contract with a term of 1 month or more (currently 3 months or more) will also be eligible to participate in unemployment insurance.
"If this policy is passed, it would be great, because I'm old now and it's very difficult to find a job. Sometimes I can only sign a contract for 1 month or more and have to move from one job to another frequently," she texted me.
I read the article and learned more, knowing that this is the content in the draft Law on Employment (amended) submitted to the National Assembly for consideration at the ongoing session. This draft law has a number of major amendments and supplements as follows: Policy group 1 on flexible, effective, modern, sustainable, integrated and centralized labor market management; policy group 2 on perfecting unemployment insurance policy as a tool for labor market management; policy group 3 on developing vocational skills, improving the quality of human resources; policy group 4 on promoting sustainable job creation.
The issue that my aunt is concerned about is in policy group 2. The draft Law proposes to expand the subjects participating in unemployment insurance to include: (i) employees who have signed a labor contract with a term of 1 month or more; (ii) part-time workers whose monthly salary is equal to or higher than the salary used as the basis for the lowest compulsory social insurance contribution, ensuring consistency with the Social Insurance Law 2024. Along with that, the draft Law also stipulates flexible unemployment insurance contribution levels and amends unemployment insurance regimes.
A few years ago, I received unemployment insurance. That was when I decided to start my own business after more than ten years of professional work in a public unit. Unfortunately, the time I waited to open a new business coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, so I suffered a loss of income and fell into a difficult situation.
I submitted my application for unemployment benefits in the first month of my leave. According to the law, employees who quit or lose their jobs must submit this application along with other documents to the insurance agency within the first 3 months from the date of the decision to quit their jobs. The insurance will pay 60% of the basic salary of the last 6 months of contributions. The amount is not large but enough for me to spend frugally during the time of implementing my plan. Because I have paid insurance for 14 years, I can receive a maximum of 12 months of unemployment benefits. At that time, unemployment insurance was like a true "lifesaver" for me.
From the perspective of a worker and from personal experience, I fully support the proposal to expand the scope of unemployment insurance. Firstly, this regulation will expand the "lifeline", ensuring more fairness in accessing social security policies. According to the article my aunt sent me above, currently, people working under labor contracts with a term of one month to less than three months are subject to compulsory social insurance, but are not subject to unemployment insurance. This is unfair and inconsistent with reality when this group faces the risk of losing their jobs.
Second, expanding the scope of unemployment insurance participants will help the policy be more flexible and suitable to the current development trend of the labor market, when a significant number of workers can participate in many different types of labor and have diverse labor relations, short contract periods, and frequent job changes.
In our opinion, expanding the scope of subjects as stipulated in the draft Law is an important solution to achieve the goal of having about 45% of the labor force participating in unemployment insurance by 2030.
Regarding unemployment insurance, in addition to the above content, proposals on flexible contribution levels and amendments to unemployment insurance regimes are also very important. Because unemployment insurance has many purposes, not only to compensate for income for workers when they lose their jobs, but also to prevent unemployment, support vocational training, maintain employment and find suitable new jobs... A better designed unemployment insurance regime will be one of the important solutions to help maintain employment or bring workers back to the labor market soon (for those who lose their jobs), through training, fostering, improving qualifications, vocational skills, consulting, job referrals...
Policy has been keeping up with life as the economy and labor market move faster and faster.
Author: Mr. Luu Dinh Long is a journalist, layman, who used to work as an editor at Giac Ngo newspaper; author of the books: Listening to your breath, The Heart Sutra you recite to yourself, Like a leisurely cloud, Like a gentle wind, Living in peace, Living positively, Loving sincerely.
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Source: https://dantri.com.vn/tam-diem/mo-rong-phao-cuu-sinh-cho-nguoi-lao-dong-20241115114721510.htm
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