(Source: Internet)

Enterprises that fail to make insurance payments for their employees will be punished as Article 216 of the 2015 Penal Code will take effect from January 1, 2018. Firms will be fined from 50 million VND to 200 million VND if they fail to pay social insurance, healthcare insurance and unemployment insurance fees. Individuals complicit in failing to pay can be jailed from three months to a year, or be sentenced to a year of non-custodial reform.

Fines rise to 500 million VND to 1 billion VND for any company that fails to pay 1 billion VND or more in social security payment, evades paying insurance for more than 200 labourers, and does not pay workers’ deductive wages for insurance, or it will receive a jail sentence from two years to seven years.

According to Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) Tran Dinh Lieu, social security evasion has huge impacts on labourers’ rights and the business climate. Although Vietnam has 600,000 businesses, only 250,000 pay social insurance for their employees.

Violations of social insurance payment and enjoyment have been concretised in the Penal Code. The VSS is working with the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam to tackle violations.

“If enterprises fail to abide by the inspectors’ conclusion, they will receive administrative punishment with minimum amount of 10 million VND and maximum of 1 billion VND or even 3 billion VND. If they continue to commit the offence, they could be punishable with a criminal proceeding from 1 year to 10 years,” Lieu stressed.

Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Quan noted that social security evasion and debt come in different forms. Some companies received 8 percent of labourers’ wage for social insurance payment but they did not give this amount to the VSI, or some do not pay insurance for their labourers, or some have money but deliberately do not pay.

Quan highlighted that online access to social security will help labourers know whether their insurance is being paid or not while pressuring employers to obey the law. Funds should be set up to support workers if their employers fail to pay social insurance, Quan added.

Meanwhile, Bui Sy Loi, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs, said tackling violations aims to ensure equality among enterprises. Paying social insurance for labourers is the responsibility of employers, creating harmonious relations between employers and workers.

International Cooperation Department