41st Session, National Assembly Standing Committee: Perfecting unemployment insurance policy in line with reality

Continuing the 41st Session, on the afternoon of January 6, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on Employment (amended).

View of the meeting. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

After the process of receiving, revising and perfecting, the draft law now includes 8 chapters and 64 articles, a reduction of 30 articles. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Standing Committee of the Social Affairs Committee have been very active in reviewing and removing regulations on procedures, as well as regulations related to the Government's authority.

At the meeting, delegates gave their opinions on a number of contents in the draft law such as: building a database on workers and a labor market information system; adding support policies for employers when employing people with disabilities...

Presenting a summary report on some major issues regarding the reception, explanation and revision of the draft Law on Employment (amended), Chairwoman of the Social Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh said that the construction of a database on workers and a labor market information system will have large costs and administrative apparatus. Therefore, it is recommended that the drafting agency assess the impact, fully estimate the costs and apparatus, and consider the provisions in the draft Law to ensure feasibility. And it is necessary to continue to study and supplement the principled provisions in the draft Law to ensure that workers are encouraged to proactively register for work and enhance the responsibility of employers in implementing labor declaration.

Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh presented a summary of the report. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Regarding unemployment insurance premium support, the draft Law of the Government proposes to supplement the support regime for employers when employing people with disabilities through unemployment insurance premium support under the responsibility of the employer. The Standing Committee of the Social Affairs Committee supports the need for this policy to support employers who employ people with disabilities, demonstrating the superior policy of our Party and State in caring for the vulnerable.

However, the Standing Committee of the Social Affairs Committee is still concerned that the draft Law is generally stipulating "people with disabilities", but according to the provisions of the Law on People with Disabilities, there are currently 3 levels of disability (mild disability, severe disability and extremely severe disability), the report does not have accurate statistics on workers with disabilities to be able to accurately forecast resources (The impact assessment report also estimates the cost at about 144 billion VND/year).

On the other hand, the draft Law stipulates that the reduction of unemployment insurance premiums is the responsibility of employers to pay for employees with disabilities. Therefore, the Standing Committee of the Social Affairs Committee proposed that it is necessary to add an assessment of the impact on the Unemployment Insurance Fund (currently, the Unemployment Insurance Fund is almost balanced between revenue and expenditure during the year).

Noting the above issue, the Chairman of the Social Committee suggested that the Government clarify the results of policy implementation and consider the feasibility of regulating this subject in the draft Law; conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that there is no duplication of policies, and that they are balanced and suitable for other specific subjects.

Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Judiciary Committee Le Thi Nga speaks. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Discussing the draft Law on unemployment insurance premium support, Chairwoman of the Judicial Committee Le Thi Nga agreed with the Government's proposal to supplement the support regime for employers when employing disabled workers by supporting unemployment insurance premiums under the responsibility of the employer. However, the Chairwoman of the Judicial Committee requested that the Government clarify issues that the Standing Committee of the Social Committee still has concerns about.

Concluding this content, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh acknowledged that, in recent times, the Standing Committee of the Social Affairs Committee and relevant agencies have made efforts to concretize four groups of policies with many new points on flexible, effective, modern, sustainable and integrated labor market management. Along with that, perfecting unemployment insurance policies in line with reality, including expanding the subjects participating in unemployment insurance, amending flexible unemployment insurance contribution rates, amending unemployment insurance regimes, facilitating policy implementation...

To promote sustainable employment, the draft Law has provisions on increasing capital sources, expanding access to preferential credit policies to solve employment, supporting employment for disadvantaged and special groups...

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly requested that the Standing Committee of the Social Affairs Committee preside over and coordinate with the Drafting Committee and relevant agencies to promptly receive comments at this meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee, complete the draft law and the Report on explanation, reception and revision of the draft law sent by the National Assembly Standing Committee for comments; review the technical documents and send them to National Assembly deputies according to regulations, ensuring quality and on schedule.

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