VietNamNet Bridge – Monthly base wages of civil servants, which will increase from VND1.21 million to VND1.3 million from the middle of 2017, meet just 50% of civil servants’ basic needs, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The ministry noted that the base wages for civil servants are currently equivalent to only one-third of those for workers. The base wage is just the minimum sum, but employees normally get a higher salary by multiplying the base wage with a certain coefficient depending on their positions and seniority.

Dang Nhu Loi, former vice chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs, told a conference on civil servants’ salaries in Hanoi on November 21 that it is easy to understand workers’ wages. However, except for wage coefficients, civil servants do not know how their allowances are calculated.

Vu Hoang Ngan of the National Economics University, dean of the Faculty of Economics and Human Resource Management, said civil servants’ base wages have been adjusted to inflation over the years. Wage rises also depend on seniority and major changes in one’s work.

He said France sets out requirements on job efficiency and pay salaries to civil servants based on these requirements. Loi said Vietnam does not have such requirements due to overlapping tasks of ministries and agencies.

Tran Quoc Toan, former vice chairman of the Government Office, told the conference that salaries should depend on seniority and job efficiency, and include bonuses.  

Tran Thi Lan Huong, a governance expert of the World Bank, said positions of civil servants should be clarified to evaluate job efficiency.

Ngan said the 3P Compensation Management, a tool that help employers decide salaries for laborers based on position, person (ability) and performance, should be applied.

A job involves many factors such as expertise, foreign language proficiency, communications, negotiation ability, creativity and physical strength so which ones are pivotal should be considered, he said.

SGT