Do employees who are off work for 14 days or more have to pay social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance?

Do employees who are off work for 14 days or more have to pay social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance? - Reader Xuan Anh

Người lao động nghỉ việc 14 ngày trở lên có phải đóng BHXH, BHYT, BHTN?

Do employees who take 14 days or more off work have to pay social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance?

Pursuant to Clauses 4, 5 and 6, Article 42 of Decision 595/QD-BHXH dated April 14, 2017, it is stipulated that:

- Employees who do not work and do not receive salary for 14 working days or more in a month do not pay social insurance for that month. This period is not counted for social insurance benefits.

- Employees who take sick leave for 14 working days or more in a month according to the provisions of the law on social insurance are not required to pay social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation insurance, but are still entitled to health insurance benefits.

- If an employee takes maternity leave for 14 working days or more in a month, the unit and the employee do not have to pay social insurance, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation insurance, or occupational disease insurance. This period is considered the period of social insurance payment, not the period of unemployment insurance payment, and the social insurance agency will pay health insurance for the employee.

The time off work to enjoy maternity benefits is recorded in the social insurance book according to the salary level for social insurance contribution of the month before taking maternity leave. In case the employee receives a salary increase during the time off work to enjoy maternity benefits, it will be recorded according to the employee's new salary level from the time of the salary increase.

Employees who are doing arduous, toxic, dangerous or especially arduous, toxic, dangerous jobs or occupations on the list issued by the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health or working in places with regional allowance coefficients of 0.7 or higher, and take maternity leave, the time off work to enjoy maternity leave will be counted as the time working in arduous, toxic, dangerous or especially arduous, toxic, dangerous or working in places with regional allowance coefficients of 0.7 or higher.

Thus, in case an employee is absent from work for 14 days or more:

(1) Case 1: If an employee is absent from work for 14 working days or more in a month and still receives salary paid by the employer, the employee and the employer must pay social insurance and health insurance according to regulations.

(2) Case 2: If an employee takes sick leave for 14 working days or more in a month, the employee and employer do not have to pay social insurance and health insurance; but the employee will still enjoy health insurance benefits.

(3) Case 3: If an employee takes maternity leave for 14 working days or more in a month, the employee and the employer must:

+ No need to pay social insurance; but this period is still counted as social insurance participation period to calculate social insurance benefits for employees.

+ No need to pay health insurance, but the social insurance agency will pay health insurance for employees.

(4) Case 4: If an employee is off work and does not receive salary for 14 working days or more in a month, the employee and the employer do not have to pay social insurance; this period is not counted for social insurance benefits for the employee.

What are social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance?

- Social insurance (or social insurance) is a guarantee to replace or partially compensate employees' income when they have reduced or lost income due to illness, maternity, work accidents, occupational diseases, retirement age or death, based on contributions to the social insurance fund.

- Health insurance (or BHYT) is a form of compulsory insurance applied to subjects according to the provisions of the Law on Health Insurance for health care, not for profit purposes, organized and implemented by the State.

- Unemployment insurance (or BHTN) is a policy to partially compensate employees' income when they lose their jobs, support employees in learning a trade, maintaining jobs, and finding jobs based on contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

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