English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
has negative impacts on working women. In particular, employers may be reluctant to hire
women who have a shorter working life, and the early retirement can limit chances for
promotion. 506 This is another example of protective legislation in Vietnamese law that requires
review and revision.
This is one of the more controversial issues relating to gender equality. During the
drafting of the Law on Gender Equality, there was much discussion on whether a revision of
differential age of retirement is needed. However, no resolution was reached in the
discussions on this issue during the drafting of the Law on Gender Equality. Hence, it was
decided that the Law on Gender Equality would contain no provision relating to retirement age,
and that any revisions should be made directly in the Labour Code and Law on Social
Insurance.
Recommendation: The Labour Code and Law on Social Insurance must be
revised to ensure equal retirement age for men and women. This refers in particular to
Article 145 of the Labour Code and Articles 50-51, 70 and 73 of the Law on Social
Insurance. No distinction on account of sex must be made relating to retirement age.
Provisions relying on differential retirement ages of men and women - in particular
those in Chapter III, Section 4 and Chapter IV, Section 1 of the Law on Social Insurance,
as well as those relating to the survivorship regime (that is, Articles 64(2)(b), 64(2)(c)
and 123 of the Labour Code) - must also be revised accordingly. It is also suggested
that wider coverage of voluntary insurance scheme be in place to include a maternity
regime.
It should be pointed out, though, that, although social insurance is available to both
public and private employees - by 2002, about 4.4 million people had bought social insurance,
of which 3.8 million were from the public sector and accounted for 86.4 percent of the total
buyers 507 - only 22 percent of private domestic enterprises contributed to social insurance,
health insurance, and trade union funds in 2003. 508 The Enterprise Survey 2003 revealed that
private foreign-invested enterprises have better participation at 87 percent. 509 The number of
female workers buying social insurance is very high at 50.5 percent, 52.2 percent of which
belong to the public sector. 510 The main reasons cited for the low participation of private
domestic enterprises is that employers do not strictly abide by the law, and the authorities
concerned do not conduct frequent inspections and promptly deal with violations. 511
Recommendation: Stricter enforcement and better monitoring is needed to
ensure that more workers are covered by the social insurance regime, which includes
the retirement and maternity regimes.
Indicator 78
Does legislation provide protection from dismissal on account of
marriage, pregnancy or maternity leave
233
506
Wells, op. cit., p. 20
507
Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Report, p. 34
508
Wells, op.cit., p. 19
509
Ibid.
510
Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Report, p. 34
511
Ibid.
Employment (Article 11 of CEDAW)