Law on Social Insurance 2014

This Law provides for social insurance regimes and policies; the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers; agencies, organizations and individuals involved in social insurance, representative organizations of employee collectives and employers’ representative organizations; social insurance agencies; social insurance funds; and procedures for social insurance implementation, and state management of social insurance.

LAW

ON SOCIAL INSURANCE

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

The National Assembly promulgates the Law on Social Insurance.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Law provides for social insurance regimes and policies; the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers; agencies, organizations and individuals involved in social insurance, representative organizations of employee collectives and employers’ representative organizations; social insurance agencies; social insurance funds; and procedures for social insurance implementation, and state management of social insurance.

Article 2. Subjects of application

1. Employees being Vietnamese citizens shall be covered by compulsory social insurance, including:

a/ Persons working under indefinite-term labor contracts, definite-term labor contracts, seasonal labor contracts or contracts for given jobs with a term of between full 3 months and under 12 months, including also labor contracts signed between employers and at-law representatives of persons aged under 15 years in accordance with the labor law;

b/ Persons working under labor contracts with a term of between full 1 month and under 3 months;

c/ Cadres, civil servants and public employees;

d/ Defense workers, public security workers and persons doing other jobs in cipher organizations;

dd/ Officers and professional army men of the people's army; officers and professional non-commissioned officers and officers and technical non- commissioned officers of the people's public security; and persons engaged in cipher work and enjoying salaries like army men;

e/ Non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the people’s army; non- commissioned officers and soldiers on definite-term service in the people’s public security; army, public security and cipher cadets who are entitled to cost- of-living allowance;

g/ Vietnamese guest workers defined in the Law on Vietnamese Guest Workers;

h/ Salaried managers of enterprises and cooperatives;

i/ Part-time staffs in communes, wards and townships.

2. Employees who are foreign citizens working in Vietnam with work permits or practice certificates or practice licences granted by competent Vietnamese agencies shall be covered by compulsory social insurance under the Government’s regulations.

3. Employers covered by compulsory social insurance include state agencies, non-business units and people's armed forces units; political organizations, socio-political organizations, socio-politico-professional organizations, socio-professional organizations and other social organizations; foreign agencies and organizations, and international organizations operating in the Vietnamese territory; enterprises, cooperatives, individual business households, cooperative groups, and other organizations and individuals that hire or employ employees under labor contracts.

4. Persons covered by voluntary social insurance are Vietnamese citizens aged full 15 years or older and not defined in Clause 1 of this Article.

5. Agencies, organizations and individuals involved in social insurance.

The subjects defined in Clauses 1, 2 and 4 of this Article are below collectively referred to as employees.

Article 3. Interpretation of terms

In this Law, the terms below are construed as follows:

1. Social insurance means the guarantee to fully or partially offset an employee’s income that is reduced or lost due to his/her sickness, maternity, labor accident, occupational disease, retirement or death, on the basis of his/her contributions to the social insurance fund.

2. Compulsory social insurance means a form of social insurance organized by the State in which employees and employers are required to participate.

3. Voluntary social insurance means a form of social insurance organized by the State in which a participant may select a premium rate and a method of premium payment suitable to his/her income and the State supports his/her payment of social insurance premiums for him/her to enjoy retirement and survivorship allowance regimes.

4. Social insurance fund is a financial fund which is independent from the state budget and set up by contributions from employees and employers and with the State's support.

5. Period of social insurance premium payment means a period counted from the time an employee starts paying social insurance premiums to the time he/she stops such payment. In case an employee pays social insurance premiums in interrupted periods, his/her period of social insurance premium payment is the total of such periods.

6. Relative means an insured’s natural child, adopted child, spouse, natural father, natural mother, adoptive father, adoptive mother, father-in-law or mother- in-law, or another family member whom the insured is obliged to nurture in accordance with the law on marriage and family.

7. Supplementary retirement scheme is a voluntary social insurance policy aiming to supplement the retirement regime under compulsory social insurance, which is formed by contributions from employees and employers in the form of personal savings accounts, and preserved and accumulated through investment activities in accordance with law.

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Chapter IX

IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

Article 123. Transitional provisions

1. The provisions of this Law apply to persons who participate in social insurance before the effective date of this Law.

2. Persons on pension before January 1, 1994, persons on pension, monthly working capacity loss allowance, labor accident or occupational disease allowance, survivorship allowance or social insurance allowance, for commune, ward or township cadres who have ceased working, persons on monthly allowance while the period for enjoying such allowance has expired, or persons who are suspended from enjoying social insurance allowance due to their violations of law before this Law takes effect, shall still comply with the previous regulations and have their levels of enjoyment adjusted.

3. Employees who have paid social insurance premiums, covering also the region-based allowance, are entitled to not only pension, lump-sum social insurance allowance and survivorship allowance but also a lump-sum region- based allowance; persons on pension, monthly working capacity loss allowance or labor accident or occupational disease allowance who are enjoying a monthly region-based allowance in their places of permanent residence eligible for region-based allowance are entitled to continue enjoying such allowance.

4. Persons on spouse allowance in overseas Vietnamese representative missions who participate in compulsory social insurance under both retirement and survivorship allowance regimes; and employees who cease working due to diseases on the Ministry of Health-issued list of diseases requiring long-term treatment and enjoy the sickness regime before the effective date of this Law shall comply with the Government’s regulations.

5. For persons on pension, monthly working capacity loss allowance or labor accident or occupational disease allowance before the effective date of this Law, the survivorship allowance regime provided in this Law shall apply when they die.

6. Employees who had worked in the state sector before January 1, 1995, and fully satisfy the conditions for enjoying severance allowance or lump-sum allowance or demobilization allowance but have not yet enjoyed such allowance, such working period shall be regarded as a period of social insurance premium payment. The calculation of the working period prior to January 1, 1995, for enjoying social insurance allowances must comply with the previous regulations on calculation of the working period prior to January 1995, for enjoying social insurance allowances for cadres, civil servants, public employees, workers, army men, and employees in the people’s public security force.

7. Annually, the State shall transfer an amount from the budget to the social insurance fund to ensure full payment of pension and social insurance allowances to persons on pension or social insurance allowance prior to January 1, 1995; and payment of social insurance premiums for the working period prior to January 1, 1995, for persons defined in Clause 6 of this Article.

8. Employees who are eligible for, and enjoy, social insurance regimes before the effective date of this Law shall continue to comply with the provisions of Law No. 71/2006/QH11 on Social Insurance.

9. Persons on pension, social insurance allowance or monthly allowance who are working under signed labor contracts shall not be covered by compulsory social insurance.

10. The Government shall detail this Article.

Article 124. Effect

1. This Law takes effect on January 1, 2016; the provisions at Point b, Clause 1, and in Clause 2, Article 2, of this Law take effect on January 1, 2018.

2. Law No. 71/2006/QH11 on Social Insurance ceases to be effective on the effective date of this Law.

Article 125. Detailing provisions

The Government and competent agencies shall detail the articles and clauses in this Law as assigned.

This Law was passed on November 20, 2014, by the XIII^th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its 8th session.-