To: Ministry of Health

In the last few days, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor receives numerous complaints of union members, employees, and unions of all levels regarding how employees are struggling to obtain written verification of confirmed COVID-19 case and confirmation of eligibility to receive social insurance benefits.

To be specific, when employees are positive to COVID-19, they will arrive at medical stations of their communes or wards to declare and request written verification of confirmed COVID-19 case (F0 case) which they will submit to their employers, however, since some medical stations are overloaded and failing to verify in a timely manner which causes employees to make multiple trips causing loss of safety in epidemic control. Some local governments request applicants to reach medical facilities of industrial parks, while others request applicants to contact their employers, some request applicants to contact authorities where they register permanent residence (which is troublesome for employees from out of town) to apply for written verification of F0 cases. Failing to obtain written verification of F0 case will cause employees to face certain difficulties applying for confirmation of eligibility to receive social insurance benefits.

In reality, numerous F0 cases who received home treatment have managed to obtain only the confirmation of quarantine completion without the confirmation of eligibility to receive social insurance benefits.

Employees who are infected with COVID-19 and taking leave have their annual leave days deducted; some enterprises do not deduct the days in which employees recover from COVID-19 from employees' annual leave but instead deduct from employees' salaries. This causes employees to be worried and enables opposing forces to incite employees to resign en masse or go on strike causing loss of social security and order in provinces and cities with large number of employees.

Based on complaints of unions of all levels, in order to protect legal rights and benefits of employees, Boards of Presidents of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor hereby requests Ministry of Health to:

1. Direct and coordinate timely resolution of confirmation of COVID-19 infection for employees to prevent employees from taking multiple trips. If competent medical facilities are overloaded, information technology should be considered for application in order to allow employees to register, declare F0 cases, or additional assistance of local authorities should be utilized.

2. Promulgate Circular on amendments to Circular No. 56/2017/TT-BYT dated December 29, 2017 of Ministry of Health in order to guide application for receiving sickness benefits and ensure benefits of social insurance of employees.

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The propositions above aim to calm down society, help employees work, and help the government implement Resolution No. 11/NQ-CP dated January 30, 2022 of the Government.

For your consideration and resolution./.

ON BEHALF OF PRESIDENTS
VICE PRESIDENT




Phan Van Anh