The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has set up a trial wage policy for three economic groups and general corporations – VNPT (post and telecommunication), Vietnam Airlines Corporation (VAC) and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM), under which the managers of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can receive up to VND70 million a month in basic wage.

Mac Van Tien from the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions said the trial policy is unconvincing.

He said it is necessary to clarify the approach way of the proposed policy: the wages are defined based on the scale of enterprises and numbers of workers, or on the business results such as the profitability rate and the payment to the state budget.

The policy under which enterprises’ managers are paid based on the enterprises’ scale and numbers of workers is unreasonable, according to experts.

The trial policy is applied to some SOEs, not to private enterprises, so the contribution to the state budget needs to be considered as an important factor.

If following this approach, enterprises’ higher contributions to the state budget means better business results and higher wages for them.

As such, the basic wages for 2020 would be defined based on the contribution to the state budget by the enterprises in the previous 3-5 years.

Under the policy, the SOEs which have stockholder equity of VND10 trillion or more, turnover of VND30 trillion or more, 10 subsidiaries or more, or have 5,000 workers or more, the basic wage for the chairs of the board of management would be VND70 million a month. The figures are VND60 million for heads of the board of supervision and VND50 million for members of the board.

As for the SOEs which have the stockholder equity of less than VND10 trillion, revenue of less than VND30 trillion, less than 10 subsidiaries, or have total number of workers under 5,000, wages would be VND60 million, VND50 million and VND40 million, respectively.

Tien commented that it is unreasonable to define basic wages based on the scale and number of workers, not on business results and contributions to the society and the state budget.

SOEs’ managers may try to recruit more workers to be able to get higher salaries.

In the 4.0 era, machines can replace thousands of workers. So the criterion won’t encourage the application of science and technology in production.

The expert suggested three criteria for reference to define basic wages for SOE managers.

First, the enterprises’ contributions to the state budget for 3-5 years.

Second, the enterprises’ contributions to society. The number of jobs created is just one of the factors for consideration.

Third, the social responsibility of the enterprises.

Thanh Lich

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