Under the decree, foreigners working in Vietnam with awork permit, practice certificate, or practice license granted by competentVietnamese authorities and under definite-term labour contracts or contracts witha term of one full year and over shall be subject to compulsory socialinsurance.
They shall be entitled to the following social insuranceregimes – sickness, maternity, workplace accident, occupational disease,retirement, and survivor allowance.
Those temporarily transferred from mother companiesabroad to subsidiary firms in Vietnam or reaching retirement age shall not besubject to the compulsory social insurance scheme.
This exclusion is aimed at addressing the concern offoreign enterprises over the duplication of social insurance payments.
According to vice chairman of the National Assembly’sSocial Affairs Committee Bui Sy Loi, the compulsory social insurance forforeign workers is necessary to ensure fairness between Vietnamese andforeigners and between enterprises which only use domestic employees and thosethat employ foreigners.
According to statistics by the Ministry of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the number of foreign employees inVietnam increased from 63,557 in 2011 to 83,046 in 2016. They mostly come fromAsian countries like China, the Republic of Korea and Japan, accounting for 73percent of the total, followed by European nations (21.6 percent), Americancountries (2.4 percent).
Those having employment less than one year only makes up4.4 percent, which manifests the local demand on and sustainability of foreignworkers in the country.
Meanwhile, the number of Vietnamese employees sent towork abroad is on a rise. The MoLISA estimated that nearly 479,600 guest workersdeparted to work in foreign countries from 2011 – 2015.
Based on regulations in some nations, the fact thatVietnam covers foreign employees with social insurance will createopportunities for Vietnamese workers abroad to get access to social insuranceschemes of the nations they are working in. –VNA