What did the leaders of Quang Nam province say?

On the morning of December 25th, at a press conference on the socio -economic situation of Quang Nam province in 2023 and key tasks for 2024, the Provincial People's Committee shared its plan to address the situation following the collective work stoppage by numerous officials and lecturers at Quang Nam Medical College due to prolonged salary arrears.

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee, stated that the school's problems need to be resolved; outstanding salaries must be paid and settled, but the way they are resolved must be based on solid grounds.

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee, responded to questions regarding the collective work stoppage by lecturers and staff due to unpaid salaries.

"The fact that the school owes its employees six months' worth of salaries is due to several reasons. Currently, the Provincial People's Committee has reported to the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee and is continuing to seek the opinion of the Provincial Party Standing Committee to temporarily postpone the deduction (of the school's budget debt - PV) for the two years 2024-2025," Mr. Tuan said.

The Provincial People's Committee has also just allocated over 1.2 billion VND to Quang Nam College of Health to temporarily pay salaries for the school's staff, lecturers, and employees.

"The province is very concerned about this issue (unpaid wages to employees - PV), and the Provincial People's Committee will resolve it. Because this school plays a crucial role in training medical personnel, it cannot cease operations and must continue to exist. The province's goal is to develop this school into a model school in the region," Mr. Tuan affirmed.

The Vice Chairman of the Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee also stated that the province will continue to review and propose amendments to Resolution 36/2021/NQ-HĐND (regulating the decentralization of revenue sources, expenditure tasks, and allocation norms for recurrent expenditure budgets at all levels of the local budget), in a way that is most beneficial to the College of Health Sciences to address existing shortcomings and problems.

In addition, the school is required to restructure its organization to be streamlined and appropriate, while still being capable of meeting the school's development needs in the future.

Quang Nam Provincial College of Health

As Thanh Nien Newspaper reported, on December 14th, 17 officials and lecturers of Quang Nam Provincial College of Health Sciences sent a notice of collective work stoppage to the school's leadership.

Accordingly, 17 faculty members from the Nursing and Primary Healthcare departments announced they would cease work from December 18th until the university resolved their salary and allowance issues. Following discussions at meetings, the suspension period was extended to December 31st.

According to the lecturers, the school has not paid their salaries and allowances for six months, from July 2023 to the present. The staff and lecturers are still trying to teach classes because they don't want to affect the students' studies. However, due to the prolonged delay in salary payments, many staff and lecturers are facing severe financial difficulties and are unable to continue working.

To date, Quang Nam Provincial College of Health Sciences owes six months' salary to 114 employees, totaling over 5.7 billion VND. In addition, the institution has also been late in paying social insurance contributions for several months.

Recently, the People's Committee of Quang Nam province decided to allocate over 1.2 billion VND to the College of Health Sciences to temporarily pay salaries to its staff, lecturers, and employees.

This amount was allocated from the unallocated training budget in the provincial budget for 2023 to train Lao students in 2022.

Mr. Huynh Tan Tuan, Principal of Quang Nam Provincial College of Health, said that the more than 1.2 billion VND allocated by the Provincial People's Committee will be used by the school to pay salaries for its lecturers, initially covering one month's salary, with the remainder used for insurance contributions. The school is awaiting further funding from the province to pay the remaining outstanding salaries to its employees.

According to Mr. Tuan, the reason for the school's prolonged salary arrears is that since 2017, student recruitment has been difficult, failing to meet the targets set by the Provincial People's Committee. This year, the school has basically met the targets set by the province (target of 200 students, but only 195 have been enrolled).

Notably, this year the school received 8.6 billion VND from the Provincial People's Committee, but 3.8 billion VND was deducted due to outstanding budget debts from previous years (because it did not meet targets), so the remaining amount is insufficient to cover salary expenses.

Another reason is that currently, the entire school has about 500 students enrolled, but 5 out of 6 majors are classified as hazardous and dangerous, thus receiving a 70% tuition fee reduction; not to mention that Lao students studying at the school are also exempt from tuition fees.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/giang-vien-ngung-viec-tap-the-vi-no-luong-lanh-dao-tinh-quang-nam-noi-gi-18523122512581795.htm