Current Status of Labor Accident and Occupational Disease Regime and Enforcement in Vietnam

Fisheries. People working in State-owned enterprises, private schools and Government employees follow a separate system.

- Fund sources:

The occupational accident insurance fund is contributed by employers only. The contribution rate ranges from 0.6% to 29.9% of the salary fund, depending on the industrial risk. The State does not support the formation of the fund but only covers the administrative costs.

- Employee benefits:

Workers are compensated for all levels of disability, paid medical expenses, and receive one-time or monthly benefits for temporary or permanent disability. In addition, workers are also entitled to rehabilitation services, including medical treatment, surgery, hospitalization, and equipment if they are disabled due to work-related injuries. In particular, workers who have work-related injuries are retrained in appropriate occupations. If the worker dies, they will receive funeral expenses, and relatives of the worker who has work-related injuries will also receive monthly benefits according to the law.

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Employees are not compensated in case of work accidents due to poisoning or drunkenness by themselves, intentional suicide or unintentional negligence.

- Manage:

The Social Security Authority of Thailand is responsible for managing and implementing the occupational accident and disease regime in Thailand. This is a government agency established under the Social Security Law.

The Committee for Compensation for Industrial Accidents and Occupational Diseases under the Social Security Agency is responsible for managing the fund and implementing the regime for employees. The Committee includes representatives of employees, employers and social insurance experts. The Committee is responsible for: evaluating and establishing the contribution rate of employers; developing compensation policies and programs.

Research aimed at preventing occupational accidents, occupational diseases and occupational safety and health measures; resolving disputes and complaints.

In general, the occupational accident and disease insurance regime in Thailand is quite complete. Some regulations have a very positive meaning in raising awareness of occupational safety and health for employers as well as employees, towards minimizing the risks of occupational accidents and diseases such as: the contribution rate to the Fund of employers depends on the risk rate of each industry; employees after occupational accidents are retrained in a profession to return to work; if employees do not comply with the regulations on reporting occupational accidents and diseases, they will be fined a certain amount of money according to regulations.

b. Work accident insurance regime in Japan

As a country with a developed economy in the Asian region, Japan is very interested in social stability and improving the living standards of workers. Industrial accident insurance is one of the social insurance systems in Japan, regulated as follows:

- Applicable objects:

The occupational accident insurance regime only applies to employees working in production and business units (state employees have their own insurance program). However, the Japanese occupational accident insurance law divides insurance into two types: compulsory insurance and voluntary insurance. Voluntary insurance applies to small private production units that employ 5 workers or have no regular jobs or hire less than 300 workers per year. Insurance participation is decided by the employer or employee at the enterprise.

- Fund sources:

Employers pay the entire insurance premium with 27 contribution levels ranging from 0.6% to 13.4% of the payroll depending on the industry, risk level and number of employees. The State partially supports the cost of occupational accident insurance within the limits of the State budget.

- Types of subsidies:

Occupational accident insurance benefits are divided into 6 types of benefits, including: medical benefits, income reduction benefits, disability benefits, disability benefits, benefits for relatives of people who died due to occupational accidents, and service benefits (when people who have occupational accidents are unable to take care of themselves).

- Manage:

The occupational accident insurance system in Japan is directly managed by the Government and administratively managed by the Ministry of Labor.

As one of the countries with developed economies in Asia, Japan has a complete, strict, and progressive system of regulations on occupational accident regimes, has separated civil servants into separate insurance subjects, divided into two types of compulsory and voluntary insurance, and has a diverse subsidy system to ensure the rights of workers. However, regarding the conditions for receiving benefits, the Japanese Occupational Accident Insurance Law stipulates that occupational accidents are only considered occupational accidents in cases where workers perform work and labor tasks under the management and supervision of the employer, which has narrowed the subjects eligible for occupational accident insurance benefits.

1.5.3. Lessons learned for Vietnam

Comparing with the laws of other countries, the thesis draws some lessons for Vietnam as follows:

- It is necessary to expand the protection of the occupational accident and disease regime to all wage earners. This expansion of the scope of application is both

ensure the rights of workers, and implement the principle of the majority compensating the minority in social insurance activities.

- The rate of contribution to the Labor Accident and Occupational Health Fund is different for each industry. The rate of contribution will ensure fairness among units participating in the Labor Accident and Occupational Health Fund, and on the other hand, it will motivate employers to pay attention and invest resources to perform well in occupational safety and health.

- Implement the function of preventing and limiting losses of insurance activities. This function can be implemented in many different forms, such as reinvesting in the employer to improve working conditions, organizing occupational safety and health training, and promoting awareness of employees as well as employers.

In fact, the cost of preventing occupational accidents and diseases is much lower than the cost of compensation and remedying the consequences of occupational accidents and diseases. In addition to the cost of compensation and benefits for occupational accident and disease victims that the Social Insurance Organization bears, there are also many social problems arising in terms of the workforce, medical expenses, and the mental health of workers after the accident, not to mention the damage to the employer.

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1

The occupational accident and occupational disease insurance regime is extremely important in today's society. In addition to the very common intellectual labor force, the manual labor force still accounts for a large proportion of the material production labor sectors, and the risks in the labor process leading to occupational accidents and occupational diseases are still very high. As a legal institution on insurance, the occupational accident and occupational disease insurance regime ensures the safety of life for workers and their families who have occupational accidents or occupational diseases. In addition, the occupational accident and occupational disease regime also protects the rights of employers in determining the scope of responsibility when workers have occupational accidents and occupational diseases. Legal regulations on occupational accidents and occupational diseases are an important legal basis for resolving compensation for occupational accidents and occupational diseases and related disputes, thereby contributing to maintaining social stability.

CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATUS OF WORK ACCIDENTS, OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES AND IMPLEMENTATION IN VIETNAM

Occupational accidents and occupational diseases are very common in manual labor occupations, the direct cause of which is due to working conditions, working environment and is closely related to the performance of work and labor tasks. It is often the result of violations of the law on occupational safety and health and leads to changes in labor legal relations, even termination of labor legal relations if the person with an occupational accident or occupational disease dies or cannot recover enough working capacity to be re-arranged for a suitable job. And with this characteristic, the occupational accident and occupational disease regime is different from other social insurance regimes.

2.1. Current status of occupational accident and disease regime

2.1.1. Current regulations of Vietnamese law

The basic rights and obligations of citizens are stipulated in the 1992 Constitution, in which “ Labor is the right and obligation of citizens ” and “ The State promulgates policies and regimes for labor protection, … encouraging the development of forms of social insurance for workers ”. It can be seen that in the highest legal document, the State has identified and protected the interests of workers to the maximum extent. To specify the provisions of the 1992 Constitution on the issue of protecting the rights of workers in general, and workers suffering from occupational accidents and diseases in particular, the contents of the occupational accident and disease regime are regulated very specifically in the 2006 Law on Social Insurance, Decree No. 152/2006/ND-CP dated December 22, 2006 guiding a number of articles of the Law on Social Insurance on compulsory social insurance, Circular No. 03/2007/TT-BLDTBXH guiding Decree No. 152/2006/ND-CP, Circular No. 19/2008/TT-BLDTBXH amending and supplementing Circular No. 03/2007/TT-BLDTBXH and many other documents.

a. Subjects and conditions for enjoying occupational accident and disease insurance

(1) Subjects eligible for occupational accident and disease insurance

It is very important to specify which subjects are subject to the occupational accident and disease regime, because this is the basis and premise for carrying out the next steps such as determining the subject of compensation, building records, procedures, resolving complaints and denunciations... Therefore, in Vietnamese legal documents, this part is regulated quite detailed and specific.

The Law on Social Insurance 2006 stipulates the subjects of application of the occupational accident and occupational disease regime in Article 38, in which the occupational accident and occupational disease regime is applied to employees participating in social insurance who are Vietnamese citizens, except for those working for a fixed term abroad who have previously paid compulsory social insurance.

To specify this regulation, Article 18 of Decree No. 152/2006/ND-CP dated December 22, 2006 guiding a number of articles of the Law on Social Insurance on compulsory social insurance lists the subjects entitled to occupational accident and occupational disease insurance, including:

- Cadres, civil servants and public employees according to the provisions of law on cadres and civil servants;

- Employees working under indefinite-term labor contracts or labor contracts with a term of 3 months or more as prescribed by labor laws, including managers, employees working in cooperatives and cooperative unions receiving wages under labor contracts of 3 months or more;

- Workers are defense workers, police workers working in enterprises belonging to the armed forces;

- Employees who have participated in compulsory social insurance but have not received one-time social insurance before going to work abroad for a fixed term according to the provisions of the law on Vietnamese employees working abroad under contracts, with Vietnamese enterprises winning bids or receiving contracts for projects abroad.

In addition, the law also stipulates that employees of the above agencies and organizations who are in the period of vocational training or apprenticeship are also subject to the occupational accident and disease regime.

In general, the provisions of current laws on subjects applying the occupational accident and occupational disease regime are quite specific and clear. The legal system on occupational accident and occupational disease also shows progress in recognizing that workers who suffer occupational accidents and occupational diseases during their apprenticeship or training period are also entitled to compensation and benefits like other workers. This is reasonable, because workers study and receive vocational training at the request of employers and to better serve their work, so if they suffer occupational accidents because of this, they are of course entitled to the same benefits as other workers.

However, according to this regulation, employees working under a labor contract but less than 3 months, if they have a risk of occupational accident or occupational disease, they will not be entitled to occupational accident and occupational disease regime. This is one of the shortcomings in the provisions of the law on occupational accident and occupational disease regime and the implementation of those provisions in practice. These employees have not paid social insurance for enough time to be entitled to the regime according to the law. It is thought that, in order to fully ensure the rights of employees, there should be regulations on the responsibility of employers towards employees working under a labor contract but less than 3 months when they have an occupational accident or occupational disease. Should businesses