On the early morning of April 8, nearly a hundred people queued outside the Social Security Agency of Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc city, some of them even showed up from 4a.m. They were waiting for their turn to file requests for lump-sum withdrawal payment from the social insurance fund.

Unemployment insurance policy has been regarded as an important tool to administer the labor market, aiming to build a competitive, high-quality one that operates in a transparent and effective manner. In order to properly perform this role in Vietnam at present, unemployment insurance policy should be instituted in the general socio-economic development program as well as social, insurance, labor and wage policies, thereby materializing the undertaking that nobody will be left behind in the course of building a prosperous and happy society.

The Government has recently submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee a draft resolution on overtime work under which the monthly maximum number of extra working hours would rise to 72 from the current limit of 40.

From January 1, six laws will come into force, including the Law on Environmental Law on Vietnamese Guest Workers, Law Revising the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, Law on Vietnam Border Defense, Law on Drug Prevention and Control, and Law Revising the 2015 Statistics Law and the List of National Statistical Indicators.

Since early this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously disrupted production and business activities in the country, a number of financial support packages have been launched by the National Assembly and Government to help enterprises overcome difficulties and to resume the economic growth.

Construction contractors would have to purchase civil liability insurance for third parties, apart from insurance for workers working on construction sites as currently. Insurance premiums would be included in production and business expenses.

Employees may either request to be entitled to lump-sum social insurance allowance just after having ceased working for one year and stopping payment of social insurance premiums or wait until they reach the retirement age. For each option, they would receive different allowance levels.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has proposed reducing the minimum period of social insurance premium payment for participants to enjoy pension from 20 years to 15 years, eventually 10 years, as from 2024.

Dr. Le Thanh Binh Ho Chi Minh National Politics Academy Social security law constitutes a crucial factor contributing to the materialization of socio-political stability and sustainable development objectives. When manual labor is replaced by automation in the economy and robots replace men in various fields, millions of laborers in the world would find themselves unemployed, thus leading to a deeper social class division. Therefore, social security law should be reformed in conformity with such pillars as the Social Insurance Law, Health Insurance Law, Employment Law and Labor Code in order to assist laborers to be adaptable to Industrial Revolution 4.0.