Representative of businesses expressing opinions at the symposium

According to the report on the social protection rights of female migrant workers in Vietnam, conducted by the Social Protection Department (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) and the Social Protection Support Fund for Vietnam social insurance project, in November 2018, 97.9% of informal workers in Vietnam do not have social insurance. By 2021, this number still accounted for 97.8%.

Mr. Tạ Việt Anh, Chairman of the Management Board of the Social Protection Support Fund for Vietnam social security project, stated that out of nearly 18 million informal workers, only 0.2% are enrolled in mandatory social insurance, 1.9% participate in voluntary social insurance, while the remaining 97.9% do not participate in any type of social insurance. This leads to a situation of "being left out of the social safety net", where the majority of informal workers do not fully benefit from basic social protection policies and programs such as social, unemployment, occupational accident and disease insurance, and maternity benefits. Meanwhile, these workers in the informal sector hold important positions and play a crucial role in economic growth, job creation, and income generation.

From a labor management perspective, Mr. Phạm Anh Thắng, Deputy Head of the Office of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs, affirmed that informal workers play an inseparable role in the labor structure. In fact, the informal labor force makes significant contributions to economic growth, especially in rural areas. However, the majority of informal workers do not have labor contracts or only have verbal agreements. With this reality, informal workers face the risk of unstable employment, vulnerable positions in wage negotiations, lack of welfare benefits, and insufficient labor protection conditions.