Many policies to support workers infected with Covid-19

3 benefits for employees of F0 infection

Vietnam's social insurance policy has changed a lot since the Covid-19 epidemic appeared. According to the 2014 Law on Social Insurance, employees will receive 3 sums of money in case they have positive test results for SARS-CoV-2, declare to the local health department, and issued the written decision on quarantine and treatment at home.

The first is the amount of sickness benefits insurance. Pursuant to Article 25 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance, employees infected with Covid-19 who leave work at home for treatment, certified by a medical facility, will be entitled to sickness benefits. The maximum period of time for employees to enjoy sickness benefits in a year according to Article 26 of this Law is as follows: If working in normal conditions, employees will be entitled to 30 days (if paying social insurance premiums for less than 15 years); are entitled to 40 days if they have paid social insurance premiums from full 15 to under 30 years, and enjoy 60 days (if they have paid social insurance contributions from full 30 years). Employees who do heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs or especially heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs will be entitled to 40 days (if they pay social insurance premiums for less than 15 years); 50 days (if the payment is from full 15 years to less than 30 years) and 70 days (if the social insurance premium has been paid for full 30 years or more).

In case the employee still has annual leave, the time off for treatment of Covid-19 can be deducted from the annual leave. Therefore, in these days, employees still receive full salary from the employer. According to Clause 1, Article 113, of the 2019 Labor Code, an employee who has worked for a full 12 months for an employer shall be entitled to annual leave and receive full salary according to the labor contract. Specifically: 12 working days leave for employees working under normal conditions; 14 working days for minor employees, disabled workers, people doing heavy, hazardous and dangerous jobs; and 16 working days for people doing particularly arduous, hazardous or dangerous jobs.

As for the convalescence after Covid-19 treatment, according to Article 29 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014, after being treated for Covid-19 within 30 days, if the employee returns to work but his/her health has not recovered, he/she will be entitled to take a leave with 5 days for health recovery. The salary during convalescence is 30% of the base salary, equivalent to VND447,000 per day, the total amount is more than VND2.2 million.

Increase benefits for employees during the epidemic period

In 2021, the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic has affected the lives of many people in society, especially employees when a series of businesses had to suspend, close for many months, and have to reduce production. That leads to the employee's life becoming degraded and difficult to make ends meet when losing jobs or reducing jobs. Therefore, timely support the employees, especially employees infected with Covid-19 is a necessity and a humane policy.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Huyen who living in Tan Mai Ward, Bien Hoa City, a worker at a company in Amata Industrial Park, said that recently when she went back to work, both her husband and wife were infected with Covid-19, and had to stay at home for more than half a month. Without these supports, her family will also face many difficulties because the children have gone back to school, there are many things to spend the money.

In order to enjoy the above amounts of money, F0 employees need to prepare the original or a copy of the hospital discharge certificate (if inpatient treatment) or a certificate of leave for social insurance (if treatment at home); certificate of leave for social insurance, issued by the Ward-level medical station, then submit the application for sickness benefits to the enterprise. Within 10 days, the enterprise will complete the application and send it to the social insurance agency. 6 working days from the date of receipt of complete dossiers, the social insurance agency will handle the payment of support payments to employees. According to Mr. Pham Minh Thanh, Director of Provincial Social Insurance Department, the provincial social insurance agency always tries to handle the procedures in the shortest time, so that the support money reaches the employees as quickly as possible.

Talking to us about this issue, Director of Provincial Social Insurance Departmet Pham Minh Thanh said that the Law on Social Insurance and Labor has been increasingly improved in the direction of protecting the rights as well as the health and life of employees, especially those infected with Covid-19 during the pandemic. This shows the superiority of Vietnamese Law in protecting the legitimate rights and interests of employees.

Lam Kh​ue