Nguyet made the statement when she led a team from the committee to work with the branch and relevant agencies on April 28 in order to check the implementation of policies on social insurance, management and use of the social-insurance fund in 2020 as well as the management of costs of social and unemployment insurance in the 2019-21 period. 

Nguyet tasked the provincial People’s Council to continue studying to issue local policies to support participants in health and voluntary social insurance, achieving the goals set out in Resolution No 28 NQ/TW.

The provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the provincial Confederation of Labour had to continue working closely with the branch in the implementation of policies and laws on social insurance, contributing to ensuring the rights of labourers in the province, she said.

According to a report by the branch, it had faced difficulties in attracting more participants in social and health insurance last year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the branch still worked very hard to obtain an additional of 6,997 participants in social insurance last year, about 8.33 per cent higher than in 2019.

The participants accounted for 10.44 per cent of the workforce in the province.

Based on data of the local Tax Department, the branch had found 1,169 enterprises, with a total of 9,796 employees, that have yet to participate in compulsory social insurance.

Then the branch mobilised 172 enterprises with 1,065 employees participating in compulsory social insurance.

The branch also pointed out other challenges that they had to face.

For example, the number of people participating in compulsory social insurance decreased; the number of new labourers increased slowly; many companies transformed their production and business models causing a reduction of a total of 1,835 employees; and many labourers in the province moved to work in large industrial parks in HCM City and Binh Duong Province.

Moreover, the policy of supporting payment of social insurance for ethnic minority labourers, who worked at agricultural companies only had the valid time of 5 years, the branch said.

Therefore, after the support time ended, some companies decided to end their contracts with ethnic-minority labourers, the branch said.

That was believed to be one of the causes of the reduction of employees participating in social insurance in the province, the branch said.

Additionally, a lack of human resources to implement tasks of the branch also worsened the situation while Gia Lai is the second largest province nationwide with many ethnic-minority people.

Also at the meeting, representatives of the provincial People’s Council and the National Assembly delegation of the province required the branch to continue coordinating with relevant agencies and sectors to effectively implement policies of social insurance and ensure social security in the province.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Le Hung Son highly appreciated the effort in implementing policies on social and insurance of the branch.

Son also said the Vietnam Social Security would continue to coordinate with its branches to effectively implement policies on social and health insurance in the future./.