Recommend more safety policies for motorbike taxis

Commenting with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs on expanding welfare policies, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor said that it is necessary to improve working conditions, welfare and insurance for technology vehicle drivers, in order to increase the coverage of social insurance and move towards universal health insurance.

A survey in 2021 by the General Confederation and a number of units shows that there are about 200,000 drivers (motorcycles and cars) in the country who are Grab partners, excluding other firms. They transport passengers, food, and goods operated on a technology platform. Half of them work in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Technology drivers are mainly foreign workers, aged 25-35, 5% female. They come from diverse backgrounds, from traditional drivers, freelancers, students, workers, and small traders. 25% have primary and secondary education, 26% have college degree. 60% of drivers go to work to earn money to support two or more people.

The average income of a motorbike driver is 318,000 VND per day, about 7 million VND per month. Driving a technology car earns an average of 564,000 VND per day and 12 million VND per month, excluding expenses and fuel. In addition to the above income, bonuses, allowances and supports from service providers are quite low and irregular.

Motorcycle drivers work an average of 9.2 hours and car drivers about 11.2 hours per day. Their working conditions are affected by weather, traffic jams, potential accidents, lost and damaged goods, sexual harassment and many other dangerous behaviors.

According to the union, there are still many gaps and barriers for this group in accessing social security policies. Only 7% of survey respondents said that they participate in social insurance and 81% have health insurance premiums. The main reason is that they do not have enough money, do not see many benefits, do not understand or have no need. But nearly 67% of drivers want to have direct access to welfare policies, especially health insurance and social insurance, many people hope that the company will advise and support payment of social insurance.

Research by Dr. Huynh Thi Ngoc Tuyet (Oxfam) in 2021, shows that the common characteristic of motorbike taxi drivers is that they only have “partnership contracts” with technology service providers, not labor contracts. This type of labor and employment is outside the regulatory framework of the 2019 Labor Code. Currently, there are no clear professional standards and legal frameworks, regulating the social welfare regime for this force.

They are also not entitled to health insurance and compulsory social insurance for contract workers, and are not entitled to any other social welfare regimes. Service providers are also not responsible for paying social insurance premiums for motorbike taxi drivers.

Only a few full-time drivers are covered by accident insurance, but conditions are quite tight and benefits are limited. Some companies provide financial support for drivers to buy accident insurance, with rates of 26%, 16%, but half of businesses do not support.

Many drivers work an average of 10-12 hours a day but do not receive overtime pay, unpaid leave, and no benefits. In the long term, there needs to be consensus among stakeholders to bring this type of relationship with an employment contract instead of a partnership contract.

The General Confederation proposed that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant ministries and branches soon amend the current regulations, the Law on Social Insurance, the Law on Health Insurance, and bring this group into the welfare system.

Specifically, agencies need to soon assess the current employment situation, working conditions, and state management of labor at enterprises providing platform services, e-commerce trading floor applications, drivers. technology car companies … to improve safety policies to protect the interests of motorbike taxi drivers. At the same time, additional regulations are added to encourage service providers to connect drivers to participate in the social security regime, especially to pay social insurance.

According to Mr. Vu Minh Tien, Director of the Workers’ Union, the General Confederation initially proposed a policy to support motorbike taxi drivers participating in voluntary social insurance and health insurance. Because in terms of working conditions, this group is a legal self-employed worker, fully qualified to pay voluntary social insurance and health insurance premiums. In the long term, it is proposed that the Ministry of Labor and competent agencies study and clarify the nature of the employment relationship of this group to have appropriate adjustment policies.

The whole country has about 50 million workers in the age group, the number of employees participating in social insurance is only nearly 16.6 million (accounting for 37%), of which 15.3 million are compulsory social insurance and 1.3 million workers pay voluntary social insurance. . There are more than 32 million informal sector workers not yet in the welfare system.

Low social insurance coverage becomes a double challenge to the income security of working age and in the long run when reaching retirement age. The central government’s target by 2030 has 60% of the working-age population participating in social insurance, moving towards universal coverage.

With the orientation of social insurance policies to 2030 and the proposed amendment of the Law on Social Insurance, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs will focus on policy groups: building a multi-tiered social insurance system by supplementing regulations on social insurance benefits. social pension; additional employees to participate to expand the scope of payment of compulsory social insurance; amending the conditions for enjoying the retirement regime in the direction of gradually reducing the minimum number of years of payment from 20 to 15, then to 10 years.

Hong Chieu