At the first conference of full-time National Assembly deputies on Sept. 29, lawmakers discussed proposed amendments and supplements to several provisions of the Law on Social Insurance.

Regarding mandatory social insurance coverage, the government has proposed adding people who work without formal employment relationships and those working through digital platforms to the groups required to participate.

National Assembly deputy Thach Phuoc Binh of Vinh Long agreed in principle with expanding mandatory social insurance coverage to these workers. However, he said the two categories are extremely broad and that clear criteria are needed to determine who qualifies, rather than relying solely on the name of a contract or form of work.

For digital platform workers, Binh called for clarification of platforms’ responsibilities in verifying income, providing data for insurance contributions and coordinating collection and payment in cases where a platform directly controls job allocation, service pricing or a service provider’s ability to continue working.

He also called for appropriate rules for people who work across multiple platforms, have irregular incomes or work only part-time.

According to Binh, before mandatory contributions are introduced, authorities should conduct a detailed assessment of contribution rates, the income base used to calculate payments, the respective responsibilities of workers and platforms, and the benefits participants would receive.

If workers have to bear the entire contribution as independent business operators despite having low and fluctuating incomes, the policy could discourage participation, he said.

The government should therefore consider flexible contribution mechanisms and appropriate support for low-income workers while preventing duplicate contributions from people already covered by mandatory social insurance through another employment relationship.

National Assembly deputy Tran Thi Dieu Thuy of Ho Chi Minh City also supported bringing these workers, including ride-hailing drivers, into the mandatory social insurance system.

She said they have actual jobs and incomes and are subject to a significant degree of management and coordination by platform companies, yet do not receive social security protection commensurate with the nature and risks of their work.

The current draft sets out general principles but does not clearly define who qualifies, the responsibilities of platform companies, the income base for contributions, payment methods or implementation mechanisms, Thuy said.

She proposed adding a legal definition of a “digital platform worker” and determining who is responsible for making insurance contributions - the platform or the individual - as well as how these rules relate to legal definitions of employment relationships.

She also called for quantitative criteria defining “stable and regular income” to make implementation clearer and avoid ambiguity.

Notably, Thuy proposed recognizing ride-hailing drivers as a distinct category covered by mandatory social insurance, noting that Vietnam has a large workforce of more than 700,000 such drivers.

Including them in the law would provide better social security protection for a large existing workforce that makes a significant contribution to the economy, she said.

Thuy also argued that mandatory social insurance coverage should not depend entirely on whether the relationship between a driver and a platform company has formally been classified as an employment relationship under a labor contract.

She proposed establishing specific eligibility criteria for digital platform workers because drivers’ incomes fluctuate depending on working hours, market demand, health, vehicles and the number of platforms they use.

Instead of qualitative criteria, she suggested measurable and verifiable indicators such as the number of days or hours spent active on a platform, the number of rides or transactions completed, and the extent to which the platform company manages, coordinates and controls the worker.

Thuy also proposed requiring platform companies to contribute to social insurance rather than leaving drivers to pay the entire amount themselves as voluntary social insurance participants.

Platform companies currently have the power to determine or significantly influence fares, commission rates, ride allocation, ratings, reward and penalty mechanisms, and whether drivers can retain access to their accounts, she said, arguing that they should therefore share the cost of social protection.

She suggested that Vietnam could consider a three-party contribution mechanism involving drivers, platform companies and the state.

Under such a model, the state could provide support for low-income drivers or those transitioning from voluntary to mandatory social insurance. Platform companies would deduct the driver’s share, add their own contribution and transfer the full amount to the social insurance fund on time.

Calls for clearer definition of regular income

Addressing the same issue, National Assembly deputy Ly Thi Lan of Tuyen Quang said that if social insurance participation for these groups shifts from being encouraged to mandatory, the law must clearly define who is covered, when contributions begin and what income is used as the basis for calculating them.

The workforce is highly diverse, she noted, encompassing people who work regularly, seasonally or simultaneously across multiple platforms.

If the law merely uses criteria such as having “employment and stable, regular income,” implementation would still raise questions over what qualifies as regular work and which income should be used to calculate contributions.

Lan proposed that the law itself establish fundamental criteria for identifying eligible workers, while contribution rates, collection methods and the implementation roadmap could be determined by the competent authorities.

National Assembly deputy Lam Van Doan of Lam Dong also raised concerns about digital platform workers, describing them as a new category appearing for the first time among workers covered by the relevant legislation.

Such workers have become increasingly common in the labor market and are playing a growing role in the economy. However, laws governing labor, employment and social insurance, along with other labor standards and social security regulations, have yet to adequately cover this group, creating a legal gap.

“When a new form of work emerges, all relationships involving contributions, payments, benefits and the mechanisms for establishing funds must be thoroughly studied and their impacts carefully assessed, with a new legal mechanism developed that differs from the traditional model,” Doan said.

He called for a comprehensive impact assessment and further study of the new category of workers.

Tran Thuong