Circular No. 59/2015/TT-BLDTBXH dated December 29th 2015 details and provides guidance on the implementation of provisions of Social Insurance Law on Compulsory Social Insurance, which contains numerous new regulations regarding sickness and maternity regime.

A. Sickness regime

Apart from previous regulations on conditions for sickness regime eligibility (e.g. employees suffer from ailment or accidents or their children under the age of 7 get sick, etc.), Circular 59/2015/TT-BLDTBXH (Circular 59) also provides further detail on accident conditions - “Employees who suffer from accidents not being occupational accidents, or are under treatment for their injuries, recurrent illness previously caused by work accidents or occupational diseases that lead to taking leave”.

Simultaneously, Circular 59 supplements specific cases ineligible for sickness regime, such as: first time taking time off for treatment of work accidents or occupational diseases; suffering from sickness or accidents during annual, personal, unpaid, or maternity leaves. In the event where female workers get sick or have sick children while working during pregnancy, they are still qualified to enjoy the regime.

It is essential for enterprises to take the abovementioned cases of sickness regime ineligibility into consideration in order to determine their sickness situations to avoid wasting time accepting all applications for sickness regime from workers and then getting rejected by insurance authorities. 

The method to determine entitlement to illness regime is quite different than that specified by older regulations, i.e.:

•    The number of days within a month to calculate the level of sickness regime entitlement are reduced to 24 days (26 days in old regulations).

•    The percentage of sickness regime entitlement applied to workers quitting their job from the 181st day onwards due to a disease requiring long-term treatment, who pay for Social Insurance for less than 15 years, is increased to 50% (was 45% in previous provisions).

In addition, Circular 59 includes guidance on identifying the level of sickness regime entitlement applied to prolonged treatment by determining the number of months off; a separate level of entitlement is made for odd days or incomplete months. The level of sickness regime entitlement was decided based on the number of days as provided for by older regulations.

B. Maternity regime

Circular 59 provides detailed guidance on cases and base salaries, by which the level of maternity regime applied to the father or the person directly fosters the child shall be calculated in case the mother passes away after giving birth. Specifically:

•    Only the mother joins social insurance before passing away after childbirth: the father is entitled to maternity regime for the rest of the mother’s remaining time. The level of maternity regime entitlement shall be calculated based on the mother’s salary.  

•    Both parents join social insurance, then the mother passes away after childbirth: the father is entitled to maternity regime for the rest of the mother’s remaining time. The level of maternity regime entitlement shall be calculated based on the father’s salary.  

•    Only the mother joins social insurance but fails to meet the eligibility conditions for maternity regime: the father or the person directly fosters the child are entitled to maternity regime until the child reaches 06 months of age. The level of maternity regime entitlement shall be calculated based on the mother’s salary.  

•    Both parents join social insurance but ineligible for maternity regime, then the mother passes away after giving birth: the father is entitled to maternity regime for the rest of the mother’s remaining time. The level of maternity regime entitlement shall be calculated based on the father’s salary.

In regards to maternity leave, should the mother join social insurance, fail to meet the requirement on insurance payment time leading to ineligibility for maternity regime, and eventually die after childbirth, the time of maternity regime entitlement of the father and person directly fostering the child is raised from when the child is 04 months old (previous regulations) to 06 months old.    

In order to guarantee their benefits, PLF recommends enterprises to give heed to the maternity-related cases provided above by Circular 59 to accurately determine base salaries and duration of maternity leave in special cases, as well as being able to provide precise answers to related questions from their employees.    

PLF – LAW FIRM