Compulsory Social Insurance for foreign employees in Viet Nam: Meeting demand for international integration

18/04/2019 11:17 AM


After more than 3 months of implementing the compulsory social insurance (SI) scheme for foreign employees working in Viet Nam, there have been some initial achievements. Not only in accordance with international practices, but in the context of widespread economic integration nowadays, compulsory SI for foreign workers also contributes to creating a favorable business environment and attracting high quality labor force to Viet Nam.

According to the provisions of Decree No. 143/2018 / ND-CP, , employees who are foreign citizens working in Viet Nam are subject to compulsory SI scheme from December 1st 2018. This is the first time Viet Nam's law has regulations on the implementation of compulsory SI for this group of workers.

The contribution of this group is carried out by contributing to each component fund according to the following schedule: From December 1st, 2018 to December 31st,2021, the employers will pay 3.5% of their monthly salary  to the sickness, maternity fund and the work injuries and occupational diseases fund. From January 1st, 2022 onwards, they will spend 25.5% of their monthly salary to pay  for sickness, maternity, work injuries and occupational diseases funds, retirement and survivors’ fund; of which, employers pay 17.5% and employees pay 8%.

According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs’ estimate,  there are more than 80,000 foreign employees working in Viet Nam, of which most are granted work permits (accounting for over 90% of the total foreign employees subject to work permits).

It is shown by Viet Nam Social Security’s statistics  that after 3 months since the Decree No. 143/2018/ND-CP took effect, there have been 8,730 enterprises with 51,524 foreign employees participating in SI nationwide. Thus, over 64% of workers in this category have participated in compulsory SI, which is a positive result for implementing a new policy. As of February 28th, 2019, the total SI contribution of foreign workers working in Viet Nam is VND 100.792 billion.

During the implementation process, Viet Nam Social Security has received feedbacks from enterprises and foreign employees who are worried about the possibility of duplication: Foreign workers working in Viet Nam may have participated SI in their home country and vice versa. To solve this issue, the Government is directing the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to negotiate and sign bilateral agreements on SI with other countries to avoid duplication of  contribution payment.

 

 

Vietnam Social Security