Proposals to Revise the Retirement Age for Female Workers
A seminar on “Proposals to Revise
the Retirement Age of Female Workers” was held on August 13, 2012 by
theVietnam Women’s Union. Invited guests were Ms. Ha Thi Thanh Van, a member of
the Central Committee and Deputy Director of the Law and Policy
Committee, Ms. Tran Thanh Binh, Deputy Chairperson of the Vietnam Women's
Union, together with delegates from many provinces and representatives from
universities and research institutions in Ho Chi Minh City.
In conjunction with the National
Strategy for the Advancement of Women to ensure gender equality, this seminar
was held to collect various diversified and thoughtful ideas from the attendees
to submit to the Government. The intention was to ask for further
consideration of an adjustment to the retirement age of women, especially
for those who are civil servants and those with highly specialized skills and
technical qualifications.
The Vietnamese Labor Code stipulates
that male workers retire at age 60 and female workers at age 55. Section III,
article187 of the Labor code cites that: "The employee who has highly
specialized skills and technical qualifications, a management position, and in
other special cases can retire at a higher age but not more than 5 years in the
application of the provisions of clause 1 of the article” [2].
The retirement age adjustment has
been a controversial issue and has led to many arguments and discussions in
public and during the third session of the National Assembly XIII. Many
participants at the August seminar agreed with increasing the retirement age to
60 for female civil servants and women with highly specialized skills and
technical qualifications because of many reasons and based on several
arguments. One example of an argument for increasing the retirement age of
women presented at the seminar was given by an expert specializing in analyzing
Labor Law and Social Insurance. She cited that Labor Laws affect 50 percent of
the population; therefore, when recommending proposals to the Government, the
Vietnam Women’s Union has to have scientific evidence based on various research
aspects, including politics, social economics, health, and biopsychology, to
prove how critical it is to adjust the retirement age for women. In addition,
references from other countries are needed to see how and at what age women
retire according to specific groups. The developed countries like Britain, the
United States, Canada, Sweden, Italy, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, or
even India stipulate the same retirement age for both female and male
employees. In the United States for instance, in 1935 the retirement age
was 65, up to 3 years higher than the average life expectancy. Today retirees
can retire at an age ranging from 62 to 67; that is, depending on the number of
working years, their own rights, their own choices, or their self-determination,
retirement age can vary from 62 to 67. If the retirees still have the desire to
continue working, they have the right to do so voluntarily, not because of
privileges, or asking for it, or any obligations. In the long run, the United
States has to increase the retirement age due to the high risk of an imbalance
in the social security fund. In fact, an aging population is challenging to all
nations around the world, including Vietnam. Sooner or later, the Vietnam Labor
Code must be adjusted for the retirement age of women in order to reduce the
burden, not only for pension benefits or social insurance funds, but also for
the empowerment of women who deserve to have the right to choose the
appropriate time to retire, and to ensure gender equality regarding education,
training, promotion, advancement opportunities, and other benefits [4,5,7].
Other attendees stressed against
increasing the retirement age of women because many of them who have leadership
abilities, good management skills, scientific-technical-qualifications, or are
skilled workers and are forced to retire at age 55 are faced with inequality
both ways. Society encourages women to work and contribute to society, however,
their talent and gray matter are wasted if they are no longer working at either
early age. To train people who have earned their Master’s, Ph.D’s, or
academic titles such as Professor or Scientist is very expensive, very
difficult, and very time-consuming. Moreover, these groups of intellectual
women are still young, dynamic, strong, experienced, and knowledgeable; we
should not let them retire at the age of 55 if they still want to and have the
passion to devote more years to their professions. If we keep the previous
regulations in effect, Vietnam cannot meet the tasks of national political
goals, the trend of international integration, the needs and expectations of
women, or promoting women’s affairs and gender equality as the Politburo
Resolution 11-NQ/TW indicates on women’s work in the period of accelerated
national industrialization and modernization. Furthermore, the provisions for
retiring at the age of 55 will lead to triangular-shaped consequences; that is,
the widest part of the triangle is mainly preschool-elementary school female
teachers, women with higher education at the next level, and the percentage of
female PhDs in the third layer making up about 20%. Then to the top part of the
triangle are the female professors, the proportion which makes up only 4 - 12%,
and females in the National Congress at 24% as reported in many newspapers.
Associate Professor Truong Thi Hien
added that “Men and women should have an equal retirement age because it is a
measure of gender equality and civilization of a society, and labor rights for
each person. In fact, up to 60 percent of women who retire continued to work.”
In addition, promotion, advancement, on-the-job training or educational
opportunities are all associated with the age of retirement. With regard to
training or education opportunities, if male workers are in the 40 or 45
year-age range, they still have the opportunity to pursue higher education, but
women do not. Regarding promotion, women aged 52-55 years, no longer have the
opportunity to be promoted or advanced, but men still have one more “term”.
Concerning pension provisions, every three-years pensions are raised by one
level; however, if women retire at the age of 55 they will be at a two-level
pension benefit disadvantage compared to men. In short, to increase the
retirement age of women up to 60 is equality for both genders. If any female
employees want to leave their job early, that is their choice and right [1,6].
A delegate from Lam Dong Province
pointed out that the Labor Code very clearly states that the retirement age at
45 or 50 years of age is for those who are employed in difficult and dangerous
work and where their jobs involve exposure to toxic substances that may
severely affect their health. However, females working as civil servants or
administrators and those with highly specialized skills and technical
qualifications should be able to retire at 60. Furthermore, the Labor Code
should have “soft” regulations for women; for example, if they have already
worked for 20 years and wish to retire early without reducing their social
insurance benefits, that should be a possibility.
Another participant from Da Nang
City commented that the younger generation may not have a sufficient amount of
work if the female employees did not retire at the age of 55. Therefore, we
need to consider thoroughly and carefully whether or not we should propose a
five-year retirement age increase.
Other opinions analyzed that women
at age 55 have many advantages such as: broad and profound experiences, high
skills and technical expertise, and more free time to devote to their
professions, so they can play as a coach, or guide, or as a mentor for young
generations. In addition, after retirement civil servants and scientists
continue working and do many different things to contribute to society;
therefore, there is no reason for them to take the place of young people.
According to statistics, the proportion of retirees still working accounts for
60 percent of the total. More importantly, the increase in retirement age for
women to be equal to that of men is fundamental to sustainable development and
reduces the risk of an imbalance in social insurance funds in the future
because they work longer and receive pension benefits for a shorter period of
time. In addition, retirement age adjustment is the basis for changing other
policies regarding training and education, salary increase, promotion and
rewards, and contributes to the implementation of the Gender Equality Law
[1,3].
Doan Thi Ngoc
References
[2] Trang 65 Bộ Luật lao động và
Luật đất đai sửa đổi bổ sung một số điều của Bộ Luật lao động. NXB Tư pháp năm
2010.
[3] http://www.tienphong.vn/xa-hoi/578374/Tang-tuoi-huu-thoi-gian-nghi-thai-san-tpp.html
[4] http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10035.html#a0=1
[5] http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/chinh-tri/73456/tranh-luan-quyet-liet-tuoi-nghi-huu-cua-nu.html
[7] http://www.baomoi.com/Cac-nuoc-giau-Co-nen-tang-tuoi-nghi-huu/47/3334509.epi
http://gas.hoasen.edu.vn/en/gas-page/proposals-revise-retirement-age-female-workers
