"Tightening" businesses that owe salaries and social insurance (part 2)

>>> Article 2: Workers struggle to "cry for help"

Social insurance (SI) is a social security policy to ensure income for participants when they are pregnant, old or have unfortunate events due to illness, disease, etc. Therefore, when a business owes SI for a long time, the rights of participants will be affected.

Workers of KNA Apparel Sourcing Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Vinh Cuu District) came to the Provincial Trade Union Legal Consulting Center to "call for help" because the company owed wages and social insurance at the end of 2022. Photo: L.Mai

Before and after the Lunar New Year 2023, there were many cases in the province where enterprises owed salaries and social insurance and then suddenly disappeared or delayed paying social insurance, causing employees to fall into dire straits. Many employees, unable to close their social insurance books, had to seek help from the authorities.

* The company suddenly disappeared

Up to now, although more than 4 months have passed since losing their jobs and being owed wages due to the company owner fleeing, dozens of workers at Minh Giang Garment Company Limited (Bien Hoa City) have not yet been able to claim their wages and benefits. Many workers are struggling to make ends meet. Previously, in the month
In December 2022, dozens of workers sought help from the Provincial Trade Union Legal Advice Center because they could not contact the business owner. Meanwhile, the business owed workers nearly 300 million VND in wages.

Mr. Nguyen Van Cu (from Thanh Hoa province) said that in recent months, he has not been able to contact the company owner, while the company still owes him and many other workers wages. "In early December 2022, the company informed the workers to stop working so that the technical department could check the machines. After that, when the workers went to work, the company had closed and the company's leaders could not be contacted" - Mr. Cu said.

The 2014 Social Insurance Law, effective from January 1, 2016, clearly stipulates that trade unions have the right to file lawsuits in court against violations of social insurance laws that affect the rights of employees. However, after nearly 7 years of being empowered, trade unions still face many difficulties in protecting the rights of employees. The main reason is due to legal problems and some provisions of the law are still inadequate.

Nguyen Huu Yen, who has worked for Minh Giang Garment Company for 3 years, said that for the past 4 months, he has had to do many jobs to make ends meet after the company owner fled and owed his employees wages. Previously, when he worked normally, including overtime, his income was about 9 million VND/month, enough to take care of his family and send his children to school. Now that he has no stable job, he doesn't know how to make ends meet, while his wife works as a seasonal worker with a low income.

Previously, in 2018, in Dong Nai , there were also two foreign-invested enterprise owners, Cho Won LLC (Nhon Trach District) and KL Texwell Vina LLC (Trang Bom District), who fled, leaving thousands of workers unemployed. Many workers at that time were owed wages and social insurance by the company.

In response to the above incident, the Provincial People's Committee had temporarily advanced money to pay the workers' salaries and Dong Nai Social Insurance prioritized closing the books so that workers could continue to participate in social insurance at the new enterprise. In addition, the Trade Union and other organizations in the province joined hands to support workers to overcome difficulties. However, after the above unfortunate incident, there have been cases of business owners "suddenly disappearing", causing significant impacts on the rights of workers.

* Many workers are struggling

From the last months of 2022 until now, besides businesses that are really having difficulties with orders and lack of raw materials for production, there are still businesses that take advantage of the situation to owe salaries and social insurance to employees.

Specifically, in early February 2023, about 55 workers of KNA Apparel Sourcing Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Vinh Cuu District) went to the Provincial Trade Union Legal Consulting Center to "call for help" about the company collecting workers' wages but not paying compulsory social insurance as prescribed. This affects the rights of employees when sickness, maternity, work-related accidents, and occupational diseases arising during the work process will not be resolved. In addition, when employees go to work at another company, they will not be able to close their social insurance and will not be able to resolve social insurance-related policies.

According to union officials, to protect the rights of employees and limit the situation of unpaid wages and social insurance, the State needs to improve legal policies, including amending and supplementing the Social Insurance Law to suit reality in order to create trust and attract employees to participate in social insurance so that the social security policy system is sustainable.

According to many employees, they have worked at this company for many years, but only when they finished their work at the end of 2022 did they discover that the company collected workers' wages but did not pay social insurance and did not close social insurance for the employees. Worker Phan Thi Ut said that she was very tired when the company owed social insurance to her and many other employees. "Since quitting my job at KNA Apparel Sourcing Vietnam Co., Ltd. to apply for a job at another company, I have had to ask for leave from work at the new place 4 times to go through procedures related to my social insurance book, which made me extremely tired. I hope that businesses will think about the employees and their difficult lives," Ut confided.

In response to the above incident, the Vinh Cuu District Labor Federation and relevant agencies have drawn up a record and requested the company to pay full salary and process the termination documents for the employees. In addition, the provincial Social Insurance has worked with the company and sent a document urging the company to pay social insurance for the employees. Accordingly, by February 16, 2023, the company had transferred 550 million VND, and the remaining debt of over 200 million VND will be paid in installments of 20 million VND per month until the debt is paid off. Currently, the provincial Social Insurance is receiving documents and closing the social insurance books for employees who have resigned in accordance with regulations.

The situation of enterprises owing social insurance and wages has caused employees to lose their rights and significantly affected their lives. Ms. Le Thi Minh, who used to work at KL Texwell Vina Co., Ltd. (Trang Bom District), said that she now has a new job, but recalling the incident of the enterprise owing wages 5 years ago, she still cannot forget the difficulties she experienced. "At that time, it was near Tet, I planned to have more salary and year-end bonus to go home for Tet, but the enterprise owner fled, leaving thousands of employees "struggling" with life, while there was no money to pay for rent. Therefore, I hope that the authorities need to have strong sanctions to deal with the above enterprises to protect employees," Ms. Minh shared.

Lan Mai

Chairwoman of Long Khanh City Labor Federation TRUONG THI BICH LIEN:

Strengthening the dissemination of the Law on Social Insurance for employees and business owners

Recently, the Long Khanh City Labor Federation has coordinated with the Social Insurance sector to promote the benefits of social insurance and instruct employees to install the VssID application to monitor the social insurance payment status of enterprises. At the same time, it has promoted and raised awareness of social insurance for employees and how to make employees know the fastest information about the amounts of money they participate in social insurance and the time of participation in social insurance. In addition, it has promoted the promotion of the responsibility of enterprises to participate in social insurance.

Director of the Provincial Trade Union Legal Consulting Center VU NGOC HA:

Workers are in great difficulty because they are not entitled to benefits.

In cases where the enterprise owes social insurance and is slow or absent, the employee will have a very difficult time because the policy will not be resolved. Therefore, to ensure the rights of the employee, when the employee pays social insurance up to a certain time, the social insurance agency will temporarily close the social insurance for the employee up to that time to resolve the policies for the employee.

Lesson 3: More drastic solutions are needed

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