VietNamNet Bridge – The Ha Noi Social Insurance Agency has filed lawsuits against 11 companies who owe their workers' social insurance fees totalling VND5 billion (US$255,000).
Five companies had proposed entering into a reconciliation process and committed to pay the debt while the six other firms seemed unconcerned about the lawsuit, said the agency's deputy director Truong Trong Thang.


Thang said that while there were many companies who have missed paying their workers' social insurance fees, the 11 companies in the lawsuit had failed to make the payments for extremely long periods.


"The companies have failed to make the mandatory payments from between 14 to 46 months," he said.


"The lawsuit is needed to protect the legitimate rights of workers."


There were more than 840 businesses owing social and health insurance fees for more than 12 months in the city by the end of last year, with owed fees totalling VND192 billion ($9.8 million).


However, Thang said there were some hurdles that needed to be cleared in the litigation process.


In some cases, business owners had fled and dispersed their assets, while some companies had filed for bankruptcy in response to the lawsuit, said Thang.


"The most effective measure (in ensuring workers' rights) is to increase dissemination of information to raise awareness among businesses of their interests as well as obligations in paying social insurance fees for their workers," he said.


In order to make collection of social insurance fees more effective, the municipal People's Committee has decided to establish an interdisciplinary team, including representatives from labour inspection, tax, planning and investment, finance and trade and industry departments, to work with the social insurance agency on fee collection activities.


Under the current regulation, businesses which owe social insurance fees will face a fine of between VND20-30 million ($1,020-1,530).


However, lawyer Tran Van Chinh from the Chinh and Partners Law Firm said the punishment remained too slight in comparison to the amount of fees many companies owed.


This encouraged many business to put up with paying the fines rather than paying their debt, said Chinh.


Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Van Tien said a growing number of businesses were becoming very slow in their payment of the fees.


One key reason behind the problem was the shortage of inspectors, he said, adding that there were nearly 500 inspectors in this field who were able to inspect only around 3,000 businesses each year.


Meanwhile, there are more than 860,000 non-State businesses nationwide.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News