On May 4th ,2020, Ministry of Labor, War Invalid And Social Affairs issued Official Letter No. 1511/ LDTBXH-BHXH provides guidance on temporarily suspensions of contribution to the pension fund and death benefit fund as follows:
The employer may suspend the contribution to the pension fund and death benefit fund in any of these following cases:
- Business operation has been suspended for at least 1 month due to changes in structure, technology, crisis, economic depression or execution of state policies upon economy restructuring or fulfillment of international agreements;
- Difficulties caused by a natural disaster, conflagration, epidemic or crop failure.
An employer in one for the aforementioned cases may suspend contribution to the pension fund and death benefit fund when one of the following conditions is satisfied:
- The quantity of suspended employees who have social insurance is at least 50% of the total number of employees before the suspension.
- The loss caused by the natural disaster, fire, epidemic or crop failure is over 50% of total assets (excluding land)
- Social insurance premiums have been fully paid by the end of January 2020 and the quantity of employees who have social insurance is decreased by at least 50% over the period from January 2020 to the date of application. The decrease in employees who have social insurance includes:
- The quantity of employees who have their employment contracts terminated as prescribed by law minus the quantity of new employees whose employment contracts are concluded during the period from February 01, 2020 to the application date;
- The quantity of employees whose employment contracts are suspended, provided the suspension period includes at least 14 working days in the month;
- The quantity of employees who take unpaid leave, provided the unpaid leave period includes at least 14 working days in the month;
- The quantity of suspended employees, provided the suspension period includes at least 14 working days in the month.
The employees mentioned in section (3) above, include only those who have indefinite-term employment contracts, fixed-term employment contracts, employment contracts with a term of from 1 to less than 12 months; hired managers of enterprises and cooperatives.
The duration of suspension of contribution to the pension fund and death benefit fund for any cases shall not exceed 12 months.
