In a turn of events, Ms. Tran Thi Hanh, a factory worker in Ho Chi Minh City’s Bình Tân district, had to quit her job to return to her hometown to take care of her elderly mother after she suffered a stroke. Ms. Hanh shared that her mother is 73 years old and previously lived with her brother. However, after her brother and sister-in-law passed away in a traffic accident a few years ago, she has been living alone in their hometown, Sóc Trăng province. In mid-April, she unfortunately suffered a stroke and had to be hospitalized for half a month.
As her only child, Ms. Hanh remained by her mother’s side to provide care. However, according to company regulations, employees are only allowed one day of leave per month (without the option to accumulate leave days). Therefore, she had to take an unpaid leave of absence for half a month. However, after being discharged from the hospital, Ms. Hanh’s mother still had difficulty walking and required extensive physical therapy to recover. Thus, Ms. Hanh decided to extend her leave to conveniently care for her mother.
Employees hope for additional support when taking leave to care for ill parents
“After explaining my situation, the company suggested suspending my contract for a maximum of 3 months. Since taking a leave of absence to care for parents does not qualify for any benefits, if my contract is suspended, I would not receive a salary and would not be eligible for unemployment benefits. I wouldn’t know how to support myself. Therefore, I decided to resign,” she said.
She also expressed her hope that the Social Insurance Agency would consider adding a provision for employees who need to care for elderly or ill parents, similar to the provision for caring for sick children, to alleviate the financial burden faced by employees in similar situations.
In this regard, the Vietnam Textile and Garment Trade Union proposed an amendment to the draft Law on Social Insurance to include a provision on the duration of benefits when biological parents or parents-in-law aged 70 or older become ill.
A representative of the industry trade union stated that although the 2014 Law on Social Insurance and the draft Law on Social Insurance do not include such a provision, in reality, when biological parents or parents-in-law become ill and require hospitalization, factory workers have to take leave to care for them. This is because they cannot afford to hire a caregiver due to the high cost, which their income cannot cover.
Meanwhile, the one- or two-child policy has been in place for many years, resulting in fewer siblings among employees. Additionally, since 2011, Vietnam’s population has entered an aging stage, making the addition of this provision consistent with the government’s policy on elderly care.
The representative also believes that since the 2019 Labor Code raised the retirement age for employees, implying an increase in their social insurance contributions, extending the age of children for whom parents are eligible for childcare leave and adding a provision for caring for biological parents or parents-in-law aged 70 or older who become ill is reasonable.
