Government approves three social insurance policies to support employers and employees during COVID-19

01/08/2021 09:45 AM


The Government issued Decree No 68/NQ-CP on July 1, 2021 on certain policies supporting employees and employers facing difficulties due to COVID-19. Among those are three policies related to social insurance, unemployment insurance, labour accident and occupational disease insurance which offer practical assistance to affected employees and employers.

Reduction of insurance premium for labour accidents and occupational diseases

Employers:

- Are entitled to a contribution rate of 0% of the salary fund to the labour accident and occupational disease insurance fund

- Will use all such exempted amounts to support employees facing difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to employees

- Time: 12 months (from 1 July 2021 to the end of 30 June 2022)

Illustrative image (source: internet)

Suspension of social insurance contribution to retirement and survivorship funds

- Employers who have fully paid social insurance premiums or are suspending contributions into the pension and death gratuity fund until the end of April 2021

- Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic suffering from a reduction of at least 15% of the employees participating in social insurance compared to that in April 2021:

+ employees and employers are entitled to temporarily suspend contributions into retirement and survivorship funds

+ For 6 months from the time of filing applications

+ For those that have been entitled to payment suspension, if eligible, they will still be entitled to payment suspension but the duration must not exceed 12 months

Financial support for training, re-training and improvement of vocational skills

- Employers must meet the following criteria:

+ Fully paying unemployment insurance contributions for employees for 12 months or more up to the date of requesting support

+ Changing the technological structure according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 42 of the Labour Code

+ Having revenue of the preceding quarter before requesting support decreasing by 10% or more compared to the same period in 2019 or 2020

+ Having a plan or cooperating with a vocational education institution in developing a plan for training, retraining and improving vocational skills and qualifications in order to maintain jobs for employees

- Will receive financial support from the unemployment fund for training, re-training and improvement of vocational skills

+ Level of assistance: Maximum VND1,500,000 per employee per month. Entitlement period is for a maximum support term of 6 months.

+ Duration: a maximum support term of 6 months

+ Applications must be submitted from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022

*Each person only benefits from one policy at a time

VSS