'If it happens, it will be extremely painful'

Continue working until December 31

Afternoon of December 15, talking with   Thanh Nien Newspaper reporter, Mr. Huynh Tan Tuan, Principal of Quang Nam Medical College, said that at the meeting and discussion on the morning of December 15 with the staff and lecturers who submitted a collective work stoppage application, the two sides temporarily agreed to extend the working hours.

"Your concerns about unpaid wages are legitimate. The school is also working in the spirit of sharing the difficulties with staff and lecturers. After being encouraged and explained about the difficult situation, the staff and lecturers agreed to continue working until December 31 to find a solution together," said Mr. Tuan.

According to Mr. Tuan, many other places "would have cried out to heaven" if they only owed 1-2 months' salary. However, the fact that Quang Nam Medical College owed 6 months' salary partly shows that there is a "unanimity" among staff, employees, and workers.

Quang Nam Medical College

"At this point, we can say that we have run out of patience to consider stopping collective work like this. Many of our brothers are in extremely difficult circumstances, but we don't know how to solve them," Mr. Tuan said sadly.

The Principal of Quang Nam Medical College also informed that after the school's petition, at a recent meeting, the leaders of Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee requested the Provincial People's Committee, departments, branches and sectors to urgently consider and find sources of support for the school to pay salaries to staff before the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024. Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee also proposed to the Provincial Party Committee that next week, the problem of salary arrears of the school's staff and lecturers will be basically resolved.

According to Mr. Tuan, the reason why the school has been owing salaries for a long time is because since 2017, the enrollment work has encountered difficulties and has not met the target assigned by the Provincial People's Committee. This year, the school has basically met the target assigned by the province (target of 200 students, enrolled 195 students).

Notably, this year, the school was granted 8.6 billion VND by the Provincial People's Committee, but 3.8 billion VND was deducted due to budget debt from previous years (due to not meeting targets), so the remaining amount is not enough to cover salary expenses.

Another reason is that currently the whole school has about 500 students, but 5/6 majors are classified as hazardous so only 70% of the tuition is collected; not to mention Lao students studying at the school are also exempt from tuition.

"The amount of tuition collected from students is only enough to cover electricity, water and some other expenses. In addition, due to difficulties, the school's medical examination and treatment activities have stopped for a long time, there is no source of income," Mr. Tuan shared.

According to Mr. Tuan, the school had "forecasted" the unpaid salary from the beginning of the year due to low budget. To facilitate the payment of salaries to staff and workers, the school has been trying to streamline its apparatus and staff since the beginning of the year.

"Do not let a work stoppage happen at all costs"

Will the suspension of teaching by the teaching staff affect the study plans of students? Answering a question from a reporter of Thanh Nien Newspaper, Mr. Tuan made an analogy: "If a factory's workers quit, it will only affect one production line, but for a school, it will be completely different."

"If one or two teachers take leave, it's simple, but if an entire group takes leave at the same time, it will definitely have a big impact on the students' learning. In an educational environment, if this happens, it will be extremely painful. Therefore, by all means, we cannot let this happen. If it really happens, it will be a rare event," said Mr. Tuan.

A corner of Quang Nam Medical College

Regarding this issue, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province, also worked with Quang Nam Medical College and related departments and branches to hear reports on some difficulties and problems. At the meeting, Mr. Tuan requested Quang Nam Medical College to promptly resolve some essential difficulties in the process of operation.

The Department of Finance is assigned to preside over and coordinate with Quang Nam Medical College to study the current operational situation and actual conditions of the school, objectively consider the possibility of deducting the school's annual budget revenue and payment estimates. From there, there will be a basis to advise the Provincial People's Committee to report to the Provincial People's Committee Party Committee for consideration and submit to the Standing Committee of the Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee for comments on the plan to temporarily postpone the deduction of the school's annual budget in 2023 and the period 2023-2025.

In addition, specifically report the school's budget debt situation each year for each content; legal regulations, policies, and instructions of competent authorities on the collection, extension of collection time, and deduction of debts payable to the state budget in the past. On that basis, propose a solution to handle and temporarily postpone the deduction of the school's annual budget estimate in 2023 and the period 2023-2025.

Mr. Tuan also requested to base on the actual situation, difficulties, obstacles, impacts and influences on the hospital's operations, and the workers' regime (due to the collection and deduction of the school's current debts) to come up with a suitable solution, in order to create conditions for the school to resolve essential issues; especially the payment of salaries to cadres, civil servants and workers.

As reported by Thanh Nien Newspaper, on December 14, 17 officers and lecturers of Quang Nam Medical College sent a notice of collective work suspension to the school's leadership.

In the announcement, 17 staff and lecturers of the Nursing and Basic Health Departments said they will stop working from December 18 until the school resolves the salary and allowance regime.

According to the lecturers, the school has not paid their salaries and allowances for 6 months, from July 2023 to now. The staff and lecturers still try to go to class because they do not want to affect the students' studies. However, due to the long period of unpaid salaries, the lives of many staff and lecturers have fallen into a very difficult situation and they cannot continue working.

The issue of unpaid wages for workers at Quang Nam Medical College has been going on for a long time. Up to now, the school owes 6 months of wages to 114 workers, with a total amount of more than 5.7 billion VND. In addition, this unit has been late in paying insurance for many months.

Quick view 8pm: Panoramic news on December 15

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