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BRIEF REPORT
LegalandPractice Barriers
ForMigrantWorkersinthe
AccesstoSocialProtection
LABOR RIGHTS PROGRAM OF OXFAM IN VIETNAM
10 /2015
HỒNG ĐỨ
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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATION ..............................................................................................................................3
PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT......................................................................................................................6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................7
Main findings of the research ................................................................................................7
Recommendations ..............................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 13
Objectives of the Report .......................................................................................................13
Main concepts of the research .............................................................................................13
Research methodology..........................................................................................................15
RESEARCH FINDINGS.................................................................................................................... 17
1. Migrant workers’ employment, income and poverty reduction...........................................17
1.1. Employment and support for job placement.....................................................................17
1.2. Ensuring minimum income..................................................................................................20
1.3. Poverty reduction ................................................................................................................23
1.4. Best practices on support for migrant workers regarding job creation,
insuring a stable income, and poverty reduction....................................................................24
2. Social insurance ...............................................................................................................26
2.1. Compulsory social insurance..............................................................................................26
2.2. Voluntary social insurance .................................................................................................27
2.3. Unemployment Insurance ..................................................................................................29
2.4. Best practices on support for access to social insurance .............................................29
3. Social assistance for migrant workers ..............................................................................31
4. Access to basic social services of migrant workers..........................................................33
4.1. Education.............................................................................................................................33
4.2. Health care...........................................................................................................................34
4.3. Housing ................................................................................................................................36
4.4. Clean water ..........................................................................................................................37
4.5. Access to information.........................................................................................................38
4.6. Best practices for the support on access to basic social services ................................40
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................45
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................50

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LIST OF FIGURE, TABLE AND BOX
Chart 1: Level of employment stability of migrant workers by sector ..............................................18
Chart 2: Percentage of migrant workers with year-round, but precarious employment conditions,
disaggregated by sub-sector ..............................................................................................................18
Chart 3: Average income from the basic salary, allowances, and total income per capita / month
by industry.............................................................................................................................................21
Chart 4: Percentage of migrant workers’ regular expenses at the location of employment ..........22
Chart 5: Reasons for migrant workers in the informal sector not to participate
in health insurance...............................................................................................................................35
Chart 6: Reasons for not using health insurance cards for health care services ...........................36
Chart 7: Comparing average prices paid for water with the lowest prices following regulations .....37
Chart 8: Percentage of migrant workers that do not access information channels,
disaggregated by areas. ......................................................................................................................39
Table 1: Percentage of workers participate in social insurance and unemployment insurance
by sector................................................................................................................................................28
Box 1: Comparison between minimum income basic expenses........................................................22
Box 2: Many migrant workers in the survey belonged to the group of multidimensional poor
in the viewpoint of their accessibility to basic social services: .......................................................24
Box 3: Children under 6 years old are eligible for health insurance..................................................32
Box 4: Migrant children not attending school and staying home alone ...........................................34
2 Brief Report: Legal and Practice Barriers For Migrant Workers in the Access to Social Protection

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
ABBREVIATION
CDI Center for Development and Integration
DNLAC Center for Legal Aid - Dong Nai Labour Union
GFCD Research Centre for Gender, Family and Community Development Center
HCMC Ho Chi Minh City
IDI In-Depth Interview
ILO International Labour Organization
FGD Focal Group Discussion
LIGHT Institute for Development and Community Health LIGHT
LU Labour Union
PLD Research Institute for Policy, Law and Development
SDRC Research Center - Counseling Social Work & Community Development
SISS Southern Institute of Social Sciences
SPF Social Protection Floor
VJUSAP Viet Nam Judicial Support Association for the Poor

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Oxfam Vietnam

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
PREFACE
The ILO Social Protection Floor Recommendation 202 (SPF), adopted in 2012, initiates a new point
of view about a social protection floor for all individuals. It requires country members to develop
a comprehensive social protection system which includes social security guarantees for the
entirety of citizens’ lives. This is the first time that ILO has proposed to expand social protections
for workers in the informal economy. At the same time, the Recommendation facilitates the
participation in national dialogues with the Government by civil organizations in society regarding
the design of the country’s social protection floor, as well as a road map for its implementation.
Vietnam has subscribed to the SPF202 and is one of the countries which have pledged participation
during the pilot period of the recommendation. The social protection strategy 2012-2020 represents
the Vietnamese Government’s effort in implementing the SPF202, which includes some changes in
the legislation system. However, the majority of migrant workers have not yet received fair and full
accessed to social protections.
This report aims to provide the public, interested organizations, and decision makers a synthesis
of our findings on legal and practical barriers against specific groups of migrant and informal
workers, as well as good practices in empowering and supporting their to access and benefits
from the social protection system. Our intention is to provide analysis and recommendations for
policy discussions, as well as for the work of Oxfam and its partners.
This research begun at the end of 2014 by Oxfam in collabouration with the Southern institute of
Social Sciences and a network of local partners. The research was conducted in Hanoi, Bac Ninh,
Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai, and focused on selected domestic migrant worker groups from both
the formal and informal economies, including street vendors and workers in the construction,
electronics and garment sectors.
This is just one example of the activities of the Oxfam Workers’ Rights program. We are partnered
with the civil society in Vietnam including labour unions, local NGOs and research institutes with
the aim of promoting labour rights and empower workers. In particular we are advocates for
migrant and informal workers in their claims for rights to improved working and living conditions
and better access to social protection.
We hope you find this report interesting and useful.
Oxfam in Vietnam
Country Director
Babeth Lefur

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research team would like to thank Oxfam in Vietnam, the government, and individuals in the
cities of Ha Noi, Bac Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bien Hoa who have created favorable conditions
for us to proceed with this study.
Sincere thanks should also be conveyed to Ms. Le Kim Thai, Ms. Van Thu Ha, and Ms. Nguyen
Thu Huong of Oxfam in Vietnam, who have contributed many valuable opinions regarding the
establishment of the research proposal, research design, and completion of this research report.
The team also benefited from the cooperation and active support of the non-governmental
organizations in the Vietnam Action Network for the Rights of Migrant Workers (M.net)1
in the
process of developing the research toolkit, organizing fieldwork, authoring of thematic papers on
the overview of policies, and suggesting input to the research report.
We would especially like thank those who participated in the surveys and interviews, including
migrant workers and workers’ core groups in the above mentioned cities. We could not have
finished this study without the receipt of their consent and enthusiastic participation.
Last but not least, we would like to thank the scientists, policy makers, and managers who read
the draft of this report and provided their valuable comments at the consultation workshops.
The Research Team:
Mr. Le Thanh Sang, Associate Professor, PhD., team leader
Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Chau, MA., team member
Ms. Huynh Thi Ngoc Tuyet, PhD., team member
1 Including: Center for Development and Integration (CDI), Institute for Development and Community Health
(LIGHT), Research Center for Gender, Family and Community Development (GFCD), Research Institute for Policy,
Law and Development (PLD), Viet Nam Judicial Support Association for the Poor (VJUSAP), Center for Legal Aid of
Dong Nai Labour Union (DNLAC) and Research Center - Counseling Social Work & Community Development (SDRC).

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
Ha Dang / Respect Vietnam
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The study on “Legal and Practice Barriers for Migrant Workers in their Access to Social Protection”
has been implemented within the framework of the Oxfam Workers’ Rights Program in Vietnam. It
was conducted by Oxfam and the Southern Institute of Social Sciences in cooperation with various
non-governmental organizations in the Vietnam Action Network for the Rights of Migrant Workers
(M.net) and was deployed at the end of 2014 in 4 provinces, including Ha Noi, Bac Ninh, Ho Chi Minh
City and Dong Nai.
The study focused on four sectors which employ the largest number of migrant workers, including
those in informal sectors such as garments, electronics, construction, and vendors with the goal
of identifying barriers, and best practices in the support for migrant workers. Recommendations
can thereby be proposed so that this large but vulnerable target group can gain better access to
and derive greater benefits from social protection policies.
Main findings of the research
1. Progressiveness of the legal frame work in protection toward
rights and benefits of migrant workers
The Vietnamese legal framework in recent years has made significant strides towards protection
of the rights and interests of workers, as well as expansion of coverage of the social protection
system , as oriented by the ILO’s Recommendation on Social Protection Floor for All.
Results from the review of the legislation system and social protection policies in Vietnam
concerning migrant workers showed that in the period of 2011-2015, the government issued,
adjusted, and added new features to the codes, laws and bylaws. This expanded the beneficiaries

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of the social protection system, which includes migrant workers in general, as well as migrant
workers in the informal sector specifically.
The informal labour sector is covered by adjustments to a series of laws such as the Social
Insurance Law, Employment Law, and Labour Law. This is a new step towards ensuring social
protection for all people. The Labour Code in 2012 introduced specific provisions which ensure
social protections for domestic workers. The Employment Law expands employment insurance
coverage to workers who have labour contracts of a full month or more. The Social Insurance
Law also expands compulsory social insurance coverage to workers possessing labour
contracts of a full month or more and eases the conditions for participation of employees in
voluntary social insurance.
A number of laws and policies aim to protect the rights of migrants, in particular the Health
Insurance Law of 2014 and the Social Insurance Law of 2014. The Health Insurance Law of 2014
outlined a specific agenda to eliminate discrimination against migrants. The migrant workers
with temporary residence registration books have rights to access to health care services and to
engage in voluntary social insurance at their destination. Local governments of different localities
with a large number of migrant workers have issued policies providing preferential prices of clean
water for the workers who rent boarding rooms.
The Social Protection Strategy 2012-2020 also identifies migrant workers as one of the
disadvantaged groups in need of social protection. With the government’s new criteria for
classifying the poor, changing from single-dimensional poverty measurement to multi-
dimensional poverty measurement, applicable from the upcoming period of 2016-2020, migrant
workers will have the opportunity to benefit from social protection policies as a vulnerable target
group of multi-dimensional poverty.
2. Roadblocks for migrant workers in policies and practices
• Migrant workers are a vulnerable and excluded urban group and they have very limited access
to social protection policies.
About employment: An unemployment rate of migrants is high, and a majority of migrant workers
have unstable jobs. The basic income of most migrant workers does not meet their basic needs
for minimal living conditions, and they are often excluded from the poverty reduction efforts and
loans from job creation programs.
The unemployment rate of migrants is almost five times higher than the unemployment rate of
workers aged 15 and above, and it is concentrated mainly within young migrants aged 15-24.
A significant part of the migrant worker community suffers from unstable, precarious employment,
especially in the informal sector (59%). Most migrant workers’ basic income levels do not meet
their minimum living necessities, and women’s basic income is lower than men’s.
Most migrant workers have to pay double price because they have no permanent residence
registration where they are located; in particular, when paying for basic social services such
as health, education, housing, electricity, and clean water, they have to pay a much higher
price than local residents; furthermore, migrant workers have to pay other regular expenses
that many local people do not.
So far, however, there is no policy which supports job creation specifically for migrant
workers. They are excluded from poverty reduction programs, and they cannot gain access
to loan programs for job generation. The urban management policies focus only on cleaning
the urban areas without adequately taking into account migrant workers’ living needs, as
street vendors are often chased away and must cope with a precarious working environment.

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
Social Insurance: 99% of migrant workers in the informal sector have no social insurance which
is needed to assist them in reducing risks such as sickness, occupational accidents, and old
age, as well as for compensation of income decline or loss by the aforementioned risks.
Many migrant workers have no compulsory social insurance due to lacking a labour contract,
possessing short-term labour contracts, or working through verbal agreement. Many employers do
not sign any labour contract as required by the government regulations and they avoid the liability
of paying their employees’ social insurance. Furthermore, sanctions are not deterrent enough,
and the government lacks human resources for the control and supervision of law enforcement.
100% of migrant construction workers and 50% of the migrant workers in the garment sector
interviewed for this study only had verbal agreements.
The migrant workers in the informal sector are not interested in voluntary social insurance. There
are many reasons; the most important ones include ineffective communication on social policies,
voluntary social insurance premiums being beyond migrant workers’ financial means, and benefits
of voluntary social insurance being inadequate in comparison to compulsory social insurance.
Voluntary social insurance has only two benefit packages, which are retirement pension and
survivorship, while the compulsory social insurance has other short-term benefit packages which
are very practical for workers, such as entitlements in case of sickness, maternity, labour-related
accidents and occupational diseases.
Unemployment Insurance: It is difficult for migrant workers to fully meet the requirements of
unemployment insurance and calculation methods for compensation results in social inequity.
It is difficult for migrant workers to fully meet the four prescribed conditions for receipt of
unemployment insurance. Another compounding factor is that the calculation of Unemployment
Insurance support is proportional to income, causing inequality between low-income workers and
high-income employees, and thus resulting in continued inequality in income redistribution.
Social Assistance: Migrant workers and their children are not yet considered as beneficiaries of
social assistance policies at the locations where they migrated to.
13.2 % of migrant workers’ children under 6 years of age do not have access to health insurance.
Migrant workers are not yet considered as beneficiaries of social assistance policies at the
locations where they migrated to, despite the fact that they often face difficult living conditions
and are in need of support for their livelihoods.
Access to basic social services: Migrant workers face many barriers, including criteria of state
budget allocation for public services often bases on number of residents with permanent
residence registration status, and entitlement of social protection services require permanent
residence registration, cost and quality of services, limitation in policy dissemination, as well as
migrant workers’ understanding and awareness.
A cross-cutting barrier restricting the migrant workers and their families in the access to public
services (including health, education, housing, water and sanitation) is budget allocation. The current
budget allocation is fundamentally based on the permanent resident population. This increases
the burden for local authorities in areas which have a large number of migrants, and increases the
pressure on technical and social infrastructure. This creates a basis for local authorities to prioritize
budgets for people with permanent residence due to excess demands on social infrastructure,
particularly within education and health. Up to 21.2% of the surveyed migrant children aged 6-14
years do not attend school. These are alarming figures about children without access to the
education system. Only 7.7% of migrant children attend public day care centers, and just 12% of
migrant children attend public kindergartens. Most children go to private day care centers, and
kindergartens, or home-based child care services. Up to 76.5% of migrant workers in the informal
sector do not have health insurance. 71% of migrant workers lack access to public health services,
and only 44% of migrant workers holding health insurance cards can often use health insurance.

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These barriers to migrant workers and their families in gaining access to health insurance are
partly due to lack of awareness (no need and no interest: 43.5 %), partly due to their lack of
financial capacity (48.7 %), partly due to the lack of information locations where they can purchase
health insurance (15.3 %), and partly because some of the migrant workers prefer to buy health
insurance at the locale where they are employed, although they are not eligible due to their lack of
permanent residence registration. The use of health insurance cards is not convenient the migrant
workers in terms of loss of work time, waiting time, transportation, and complex administrative
procedures. All of these are the key factors which lead to a low percentage of migrant workers
using health insurance cards.
More than two-thirds of surveyed migrant workers have to pay three times as much for electricity
and twice as much for water when compared to locals.
• Some social protection policies have not yet been aligned with realities, current situations,
and characteristics of migrant workers.
Many items within social protection policies related to migrant workers are not sufficiently
relevant and concrete, and lack clear guidance and essential resources for their implementation
and practices. Furthermore, some policies have been formulated, but not aligned with realities
and current situations, specific characteristics, and the status of migrant workers. Administrative
procedures are still complicated, wordy, inappropriate, and unrealistic, hindering the access of
people in need.
• Limitations in communication on social protection policies are major barriers to the migrant
workers’ access to social protection.
Many migrant workers in the formal sector and a majority of migrant workers in the informal sector
do not fully understand their rights and due benefits at their places of work and residences. The
most important factor leading to this situation is that social protection policies either fall short
or fail completely in reaching out to migrant workers through communication or media activities.
The social protection policy for information services only aims to ensure the means to provide
information such as newspapers, radios, and television systems, but does not pay attention
to media channels, the quality of information, or the responsibilities of entities which provide
information. There are no official media programs reserved for large communities of migrants.
Most migrant workers (36.4 % in the formal sector and 87.3 % in the informal sector) do not know
where to access information or advice on labour laws and social insurance. Their unofficial
exclusion from these activities at their local residential areas has simultaneously excluded the
migrant workers from useful information channels on social protection.
• There are many good initiatives and good practices at the local level with the collabouration
of government agencies, mass organizations, social organizations, and active individuals.
These can offer suggestions for models to build and scale the support of migrant workers.
There are a number of organizations and individuals who actively support the workers’ access to
information and employment opportunities, advancement of professional skills, access to basic
social services such as health care and public school attendance for children, preferential prices
for clean water and electricity, stabilized rental costs for accommodation, access to practical
and easily understood information on legal policies, as well as assistance in cases of irregular
expenditures such as weddings, funerals, holidays, sick leave, etc.
Apart from providing direct and specific support, these initiatives also help migrant workers
participate in formal and informal social networks in order to increase their access to information
about relevant social protection policies. The special characteristics of these initiatives are their
diversity of support contents and methods, focusing on empowerment of migrant workers through
access to information, increasing their self-confidence, initiative, teamwork, and integration
in the communities into which they have migrated. These initiatives also attract the active

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
participation of different stakeholders such as governmental agencies, mass-associations,
employers, boarding rooms, house owners, and service delivery organizations.
Recommendations
Migrant workers have been playing increasingly important roles in the cities’ major labour force. Still,
this segment of the population has not yet become a directly targeted group within development
policies in general, and social protection policies in particular. To ensure that migrant workers’ rights
and interests are aligned with national social protection objectives, and to contribute to sustainable
development so that migrant workers can access and benefit from equitable social protections, it
is recommended that the overall solutions in the social protection strategy shall be combined and
integrated simultaneously with measures aimed at removing the current barriers. Based on such an
orientation, the research team would like to suggest eight recommendations as follows:
1. Develop an overall program for migrant workers regarding the socio-economic development
plans, social protection policies and other development policies, in which migrant workers are
identified as an important part of the workforce.
2. Review and remove regulations which so far still tie social protection policies to household
residential registration status, as this is one of the biggest barriers to social protection access
for migrant workers.
3. The Government should implement the co-payment of voluntary social insurance for workers
in the informal sector and expand voluntary social insurance benefits.
4. Enact effective mechanisms to ensure that employers become responsible for co-payment of
voluntary social insurance.
5. Review various policies to ensure better access to social protection for migrant workers as
follows: (i) the policy on the Minimum Wage shall actually guarantee a minimum living standard
(ii) the policy on Unemployment Insurance shall provide more advantages for, and opportunities
for access by migrant workers, and its regulation on calculation and measurement shall be
revised so migrant workers receive equitable entitlements.
6. It is essential to issue detailed regulations and guidance for the effective execution of the
current policies, such as to: i) prepare and issue guidance for the implementation of Decree
196/2013/ND-CP dated 21 November 2013, regulating support of Employment Services
Centers to employees when they move from one locality to another, in which there is a
relevant mechanism and level of support (ii) Prepare additional decrees and circulars guiding
the implementation of preferential credit programs to create jobs for migrant workers at their
new locales, so that migrant workers can access these programs’ loans in order to ensure
employment and stable income (iii) Prepare additional documents with detailed guidance on
the implementation of various provisions in Paragraph 1 , Article 38, of Social Insurance Law
2014. Prepare detailed regulations on the amount of social support, eligibility for support,
and implementation times for the policy on supporting the premiums of social insurance for
employees participating into voluntary social insurance.
7. Promote communication activities; diversify forms and channels of communication to increase
the migrant workers’ access to information, especially for workers in the informal sector.
8. Formalize and model good initiatives to support migrant workers in order to replicate and
promote good practices which were implemented by social and mass organizations in the
country, with reference to lessons learned in other countries around the world; furthermore,
continue to use effective technical and financial assistance from international social
organizations.

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Oxfam Vietnam

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
INTRODUCTION
Objectives of the Report
Rural-to-urban labour migration is an increasing trend in the context of industrialization and
urbanization processes in Vietnam. The decline in demand for agricultural labour, increases in
employment opportunities and income levels in urban areas and industrial zones, as well as the
improvement of road infrastructure has accelerated rural-urban labour migration. These changes
pose objective requirements for the construction and completion of legal policies concerning
migrant workers.
The research report on access for migrant workers to social protection services provides evidence
on the current legal and practical barriers in the formal and informal sectors in urban areas and
industrial parks. The study also searches out and introduces good practices regarding the support
for migrant workers’ access to and benefits from the social protection system and social policies.
The findings on barriers and good practices are an important basis for proposing policy changes
as well as the effective implementation of social protection policies for migrant workers.
Main concepts of the research
Social protection. In Vietnam, the Social protection strategy for the period of 2011 – 2020, and the
concept of “social protection” includes a system of social protection policies and programs run by
the State, social partners, and private sector. These aim to provide support and capacity building
for individual workers, families and communities in order for them to be able to manage risks
caused by job loss, old age, sickness, natural disaster risks, structural change, and economic
crises which result in the loss of income and decrease of access to the basic social services
system (ILSSA, 2013 p.54). The Vietnamese social protection policies during the period of 2012-
2020 are based on the following four basic pillars:
• The group of employment policies which guarantee a minimum income and poverty reduction:
to help people pro-actively prevent risk through participation in the labour market in order
to get good jobs, meet minimum income requirements, and execute sustainable poverty
reduction.
• The group of social insurance policies: to help people reduce the risks associated with illness,
occupational accident, and old age through their participation in the social insurance system,
and to pro-actively recompense for their decline or loss of income due to the above mentioned
risks.
• The group of social protection policies: includes regular and unexpected policies to help
people overcome risks that are unforeseen or beyond their control (e.g. crop failure, hunger,
or chronic poverty).
• The group of basic social services policies: to increase people’s minimum access to basic
services, including a minimum level of education, health care, housing, clean water,
information access, and communications.

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Social Protection System of Viet Nam
Employment, ensuring
a minimum income
and poverty reduction
Employment
creation
Social insurance
Compulsory
social insurance
Social support to
disadvantaged
groups
Regular social
support
Basic social
services
Education
Concessional
credit
Vocational
education
support
Support for job
placement (in
country
and abroad)
Sickness
Maternity
Occupational
and illness
Retirement
pension
Survivorship
Care at social
protection
institutions
and community
Support in
Unexpected
social protection
Health care
(including
health
insurance)
Housing
Clean water
Public
employment
program
Poverty reduction
Voluntary social
insurance
Retirement
pension
Survivorship
Information
Unemployment
insurance
Additional retirement
insurance
The migrant workers selected for this study came from locations outside the province or city
where they currently live and are working in four sectors (garments, electronics, construction
and street vending) but do not yet have permanent residential status. All those who have or do
not have temporary residential registration, but have actually been residing in the local area for a
minimum of 6 months are included in the study population.
Migrant workers in the formal sector include those who work with a written labour contract from 1
month or more in the garment and electronics sectors.
Migrant workers in the informal sector include those who work under a verbal agreement or
without labour contract, as well as those who create jobs for themselves in the garment industry,
construction sector, and street vending profession.

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
Oxfam Vietnam
Research methodology
The study used a participatory approach with the cooperation and participation of three main
groups: (i) SISS’s research team; (ii) the non-governmental organizations which are partners of
Oxfam in Vietnam within the framework of the Labour Rights Program, including CDI, LIGHT, GFCD,
PLD, VJUSAP, DNLAC and SDRC; (iii) representatives of migrant workers; quantitative surveys and
qualitative research in the 4 represented geographical areas of Ha Noi, Bac Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City
(HCMC) and Dong Nai; focus on four migrant worker intensive branches, specifically garments,
electronics, construction, and street vending with the structure by formal and informal sector
as follows: An equal sampling size for 4 locations and 4 surveyed sub-sectors, in which 100%
of migrant workers were working in electronics under the formal sector; 50% of migrant workers
working in the garment industry under the formal sector and 50% under the informal sector; 100%
of migrant workers in construction within the informal sector, and 100% of migrant workers who are
street vendors within the informal sector. The study conducted 808 quantitative interviews (319 in
the formal sector and 489 in the informal sector), 36 group discussions, and 48in-depth interviews
with migrant workers and a number of interviews regarding strategy with other stakeholders such
as local officials, unions, mass organizations, lawyers, landlords, and social organizations.

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
RESEARCH FINDINGS
The research findings were respectively presented under the pillars of social protection, starting
with realities, to policy barriers, practical barriers, and then finally the best practices in the support
for migrant workers. The pillars of social protection cover many areas for various beneficiaries while
migrant workers are only a specific target group; therefore, some social protection policies concerning
migrant workers apply to some more than other policies. The structure of the report is to show the
direct relationship between the barriers for the migrant workers and access to social protection.
1. MIGRANT WORKERS’ EMPLOYMENT, INCOME AND POVERTY REDUCTION
1.1. Employment and support for job placement
The research findings show that the migrant workers’ unemployment rate was almost five times
higher than the unemployment rate of workers aged 15 and older; the unemployment rate was
concentrated mainly among young people aged 15-24, who are the group newly entering the
labour market (GSO, 2012). A significant proportion of migrant workers have unstable, precarious
employment, especially in the informal sector. Rural-urban migrant workers often have heavy,
hazardous occupations, such as unskilled workers (employed in construction sites, manufacturing/
recycling of plastics, garment, footwear, security guards, etc.), street vendors, and domestic
workers. The majority of them work in units of the informal sector such as individual economic
establishments, or are home-based or self-employed, and therefore there is a low percentage
of migrant workers that have labour contract, or in case they do have labour contracts, their
employers are less interested in implementing social insurance and other social benefits for
employees in the economic units of the informal sector (Nguyen, T., 2009). Even migrant workers
who have labour contracts face precarious employment status (UN Vietnam, 2010b).
The research findings also showed that migrant workers may have year-round employment
but lack stability, particularly for migrant workers in the informal sector. Including seasonal
employment, up to 59% of migrant workers in the informal sector has unstable jobs (Chart 1). If
making comparisons between the different sectors in which migrant workers are employed, the
difference in degree of stability is very large. A high percentage of street vendors are employed
year-round, but their employment has the highest degree of instability, accounting for 58.3%,
followed by construction workers (51.5%), garment workers in the informal sector (39, 3%), with
the lowest figures representing garment workers (10.7%) and electronics workers (16.9%) in the
official sector (Chart 2). If including seasonal employment, construction workers have the highest
rate of employment instability (65%) followed by street vendors (62%). These results are also
consistent with the nature of their work. The large- and medium-sized garment and electronics
manufacturing industries are less adversely impacted by natural conditions and the external
working environment. Meanwhile, the construction sector depends a lot on weather factors and
current market conditions. The work demand is very high in the dry season and the latter months
of the year, but work demand falls sharply in the rainy season. Similarly, street vendors tend to
focus on the core activities of selling food, drinks, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants,
toiletries, books, scrap and discarded materials, etc. These professions often do not offer stable
vending location or lack safe and favorable conditions, and depend greatly on weather, urban
space, and social environments. Due to the significantly higher proportion of female workers in
comparison to males in the formal sector, female migrant workers experience greater employment
stability than males do (64% versus 50%).

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Chart 1: Level of employment stability of migrant workers by sector
85%
52%
Formal sector
Imformal sector
41%
15%
7%
0%
Stable jobs all year round Job instability Seasonal Jobs
Chart 2: Percentage of migrant workers with year-round, but precarious employment
conditions, disaggregated by sub-sector
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
10.70%
16.90%
37.40% 39.30%
51.50%
58.30%
0.00%
Formal sector Electronic Total Informal Construction Hawker
garment worker sector worker
worker garment
worker
Legal and practical barriers to migrant workers in the formal sector
Articles 34 and 35 of the Constitution amended in 2013 stipulate that all citizens are guaranteed
the rights to social protection, have the rights to work, to choose their career, employment
and workplace; wage earners are ensured fair working conditions and safety. The support
policy system to create jobs has many new advancements and detailed regulations for various
specific work groups, such as workers in the informal sector, and domestic workers. The policy
system has created conditions for employees to have more opportunities for employment as
well as stable jobs, with mandatory provisions in the work environment to protect workers’
rights and interests, including a significant proportion of migrant workers.

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
However, so far there is no employment support policy related to job creation specifically
for migrant workers. The employment policy focuses only on vocational training and providing
general information on employment. There is no concern shown for training of social skills and
soft skills at work which would be of assistance to migrant workers, who are mostly rural farmers.
These skills help such workers to adapt to urban and industrial working environments.
Moreover, although the policy support system for job creation has many new improvements
and gives attention to a number of factors which directly influence migrant workers, there
are still some shortcomings regarding the legal framework and policy enforcement:
There is a lack of binding regulations to enforce the law on ensuring stable employment, leading to
a risk of employees becoming unemployed and violating their labour contract for migrant workers
in the formal sector. The unilateral termination of definite term labour contracts without prior notice
of the employer has too low a level of sanction and the violators are only sanctioned when the
employee files a lawsuit, while the ability to file a lawsuit is very limited.
Moreover, working environments and working conditions are too strict in their places of
employment and inhibit workers’ liberties, and include regulations on working times, rest
time, personal hygiene, water breaks, sick leave, and sanctions in case of violations. After
extended time working under such conditions, employees are no longer physically fit or agile
enough to continue their work, which leads to employees facing the risk of being laid off.
“Usually we work 8 hours per day, and the same for Sunday. For a regular working day, we go home at
5:00 pm. When working overtime, we finish at 8:00 pm, and then we have to catch the bus and don’t
get home until 9:00pm. We have dinner, take a shower, and then go to bed at 11:00 pm. The next
day, we catch the bus at 5:45 am to go to work. When there is a lot of work, we are forced to work
overtime, even on Sunday.” (Focus group discussion of electronics workers 3, Dong Nai Province)
Migrant workers’ evaluate their working environment:
- Overly strict regulations regarding working hours: 40,4%
- Tight and controlling management during working hours: 39,1%;
- Restrictive regulations regarding sick leave: 28,9%
Migrant workers are not yet highly aware labour laws, their bargaining power is limited, and
they have a stereotype of being “vulnerable”. Therefore, when facing a unilateral breach
of contract when employers terminate their employment, migrant workers simply accept it.
“Because of our lower levels of education, our legal knowledge is somewhat limited. Now we are
poor, so we are just happy for being employment” (FGD of Khmer construction workers, HCMC).
Roles and responsibilities of the labour inspectorate and Labour Unions in monitoring labour law
enforcement and protecting the rights of workers are limited, and do not result in protection of migrant
workers’ rights. The research findings showed that when migrant workers face the employer’s unilateral
termination of their labour contracts, there is no support from the labour inspectors and Labour Union.
“The Labour Union members are also the company’s employees; therefore they cannot
protect the workers. We do not trust the company’s Labour Union, therefore we always keep
silent and accept their decisions as we do not know whose advice to seek” (FGD, garment
workers, Dong Nai Province).
Legal and practical barriers for migrant workers in the informal sector
Migrant workers cannot access the loan program to create jobs since they are not able to meet
requirements on guarantees or procedures on entitlement assessment, as the two conditions
are still based on residence status requiring a permanent registration book. For migrant workers

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in the informal sector, due to the precarious nature of their jobs, there is a high percentage
of seasonal employment (representing 59% of the sample of migrant workers in the informal
sector). Their employment depends on objective factors such as the weather, market, and social
environment, etc., while it is difficult for them to access support policies of the local government.
With their characteristics as migrant workers, it is difficult for them to be considered for loans as
they do not meet the conditions of loan guarantees and the loan approval procedures are based
upon their residential status, requiring a permanent household registration book.
Labour Law, Employment Law and Decree 196/2013/ND-CP shows many improvements and progress,
however these laws and by-laws have not yet come into practice due to the lack of detailed guidelines,
lack of inspection regulations, and strict monitoring of the involved state agencies.
The Labour Code of 2012 has many new features to ensure the harmonization of the rights
and interests of employees and employers. Another new form of progress in this Code is
that it targets groups of informal workers such as domestic workers, with the regulation
indicating that the employer has to sign a labour contract to ensure supply for food and
accommodation as well as to pay social insurance and health insurance for the employee’s
self-purchase. The Employment Law expands the target groups participating in employment
insurance, including people working under labour contracts or contracts of indefinite
or definite term limits which are at least one month or more. Employees are entitled to
participate in unemployment insurance in case of loss of their jobs. Thus the provisions in
the Employment Law are the “cradle” for the current freelance and unskilled workers. Decree
196/2013 / ND - CP dated 21 November 2013 prescribed that the job placement center provides
assistance for employees when they move from one locality to another for work, however, without
relevant support mechanisms and without specifying the amount of support allowances.
As a result, the two mentioned laws and the decree have not yet come into practice, due to
a lack of detailed guidelines, lack of inspection regulations, and lack of close monitoring by
the relevant state agencies.
The urban management policy focuses only on cleaning the urban areas without adequately taking
into account migrant workers’ livelihood necessities. Street vendors are often chased away and
they suffer from precarious working environments. This goes against the spirit of the Employment
Law which aims to ensure the right to work, and workers’ freedom in their choice of workplace.
1.2. Ensuring minimum income
According to Article 90 in the Labour Code of 2012, the minimum wage is the lowest pay allowable
for employees who do the simplest work in normal working conditions, and has to be adequate
to ensure the minimum living necessities of employees and their families. The Resolution of the
Eleventh Party Congress has set out a reform of wage policy, under which wages must be regarded
as the price of labour, and formed under the market mechanism with State management. The
purpose is to gradually ensure that the employees can live on their wages and the minimum wages
should meet the basic needs of employees and their families’ living standards.
In fact, the income levels of migrant workers in the formal and informal sectors are lower than
the minimum requirements of basic living standards. The qualitative and quantitative research
findings show that the basic income level of most migrant workers does not meet their minimum
living needs. Basic monthly wage of construction workers was highest (VND 4.7 million), followed
by street vendors (4.2 million), electronic workers and informal garment sector employees (4
million) and the formal garment sector workers have had the lowest wage (3.8 million) (Refer to
Chart 3). The migrant workers’ average basic salary is 4.2 million VND per month. However, female
migrant workers’ basic income is lower than for males (85% in the case of formal workers and 76%
in the case of street vendors). At present, the path to attaining income equality between men and
women migrant workers is that women take longer working hours.

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
Chart 3: Average income from the basic salary, allowances, and total income per capita
/ month by industry
4,978,670
5,956,367
4,716,082
4,163,835
4,042,438
3,820,446 4,022,749 4,692,938 4,163,835 3,938,584
1,158,223 1,933,618
23,145 - 103,854
Formal sector
garment worker
Electronic
worker
Construction
worker
Hawker Imformal
setor garment
worker
Basic income
Others
Average total
Legal and practical barriers
The minimum wage does not meet employees’ minimum needs and employers cling to it in order
to control costs of labour
Although the minimum wage policy aims to meet the employees’ and their families’ minimum living
needs,thefact isthat thecurrentminimum wagecanonlyguarantee60% ofthe employees’necessities
(Pham, T.H.C, 2014). The provision on the minimum wage is still too low, plus the disadvantages which
originate from the employees’ limited capacities in negotiations leads to the employers’ competitive
advantage and reliance on the minimum wage to keep employees’ wages low.
Migrant workers have to pay double expenses because they lack permanent residence registration
in the locations where they work, in particular expenses for basic social services such as health,
education, housing, electricity, and clean water are much higher than for locals (section 4 below
will mention this with more details). The cost of living continues to rise, while the migrants’ income
does not increase commensurately. This difficulty is the one most repeatedly mentioned by the
migrant workers group (ActionAid, UKaid & Oxfam, 2012).
Migrant workers have to shoulder several regular expenses that local people do not have. For
example, house/room rental costs, child support remittances, travel expenses to the countryside
for visiting their families (accounting for 40.3% of the migrant workers’ total expenditure at their
location of employment). Spending on daily meals accounts for 33.4%, while expenditures for other
minimum living needs such as health care, education, clothing, electricity, and water take up a
very low percentage (the total of these costs accounts for only 10.7% of their total expenditures)
(Refer to Chart 4).
Therefore, migrant workers in the formal sector have no choice but to work overtime as well as to
try their best to comply with internal regulations at their place of employment in order to minimize
financial penalties for infractions of the rules, and in order to get additional sources of income.
Migrant workers in the informal sector do not obtain any subsidies nor do they receive any additional
income beyond their wages. The income from street vendors is often insufficient and unreliable,
so their lives are even more difficult than those of the migrant workers in the formal sector. Both
migrant worker groups also try to minimize personal expenses and those for their children’s needs.

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22 Brief Report: Legal and Practice Barriers For Migrant Workers in the Access to Social Protection
Chart 4: Percentage of migrant workers’ regular expenses at the location of employment
Accomodation
Remittance
Hiring room
Entertainment
Coming back their contryside
Parties
Travel costs
Clothes
Telephone
Healthcare
Electric
Water
Fee of kindergarten
Tuition
Interest rate
Fee of garden kids
Fee of extra -class
Extra fee of extra time
Contribute to unions
4.7
4.1
3.9
3.4
3.3
3.1
2.6
1.6
1.2
0.9
0.7
0.3
0.3
0.1
0.1
0
12.1
24.1
33.4
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Box 1: Comparison between minimum income basic expenses
Case 1: Migrant workers of the formal sector
A family consists of a couple and two young children living in Dong Nai Province. The wife is
an electronics worker and the husband is a bricklayer; they live with their two young children,
with one child attending grade 1 and the younger one attending kindergarten.
The basic salary of the couple is about 7.000.000 VND per month; while the household’s basic
monthly expenditures are 7.900.000 VND. This does not provide for medical expenditures,
although their two young children often get mild illnesses such as cough or runny nose. Their
common treatment is medication bought from a pharmacy, which costs about VND 30,000
per treatment. Calculations show that their salary can only meet 88.6% of their basic needs,
excluding the cost of health care.
Case 2: Migrant workers in the informal sector
One family consists of a couple and their 4 children. The eldest child attends Polytechnic
University in Bien Hoa, the second child is in Grade 11, the third child is in Grade 10 and the
youngest is only 3 years old.
The husband works as security guard and earns 5 million VND per month. The wife sells waste
soil materials and earns 5 million VND per month.
The parents’ monthly expenditure for basic needs equal 6 million for food, and 1.2 million for
housing. Although tuition is free for good students from poor households they still have to
pay 2.5 million extra for tutoring for their children. Their total expenses are 9.5 million VND,
excluding the cost of other basic needs.
To earn money for their children’s education, the couple has to put their residential registration
book in a pawn shop in the countryside. They also borrowed 60 million VND from the bank, but
ten years later they still have been unable to repay the capital on their debt. So, now they
hope that their children will repay it when they have grown up. At present, they pay 750,000
VND for the monthly bank interest.

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
1.3. Poverty reduction
Migrant workers are often excluded from poverty reduction programs. If one bases the evaluation on the
nationalpovertythreshold,whichis6millionVNDperpersonperyearorlessforapoorhousehold,andfrom
6 million to 7.8 million per person per year for near poor household in urban areas (Prime Minister, 2011),
then there are no migrant workers who belong to poor or near poor households in the research sample;
therefore, they are ineligible according to the support policy. This poverty line is far too low compared to
reality and many local areas such as HCMC no longer follow the national poverty line definitions, as these
cities set up their own poverty line which is much higher than the national standard.
The poverty line in HMCMC defined for the years of 2014-2015 is from VND 16 million per person
per year or less for a poor household and from over 16 million to 21 million per person per year for
near poor households. Even with this poverty threshold, if calculating the average total income per
migrant worker’s household, including their dependents living together in HCMC, there only 1% of the
households are considered poor and another 1% are near-poor. However, this does not mean that
they are not truly poor as they often have many dependents still living in rural areas (31.9% of married
migrant workers have children under the age of 15 living in rural areas, and figures are not included
for those that have elderly dependents in the countryside), and a portion of their income is remitted
to family members still located in the countryside. If one adds these dependents, the average income
of the migrant workers’ households per person would be significantly lower. However, this feature
has not been considered because the current programs assessing poor households do not include
migrants. Thus, migrant workers are implicitly excluded from the poverty reduction program.
Although HCMC is an area which has many poverty reduction policies that are much more dynamic
and open to long-term temporary residents, cases of migrant workers receiving loans from
poverty reduction programs are very limited, including those holding temporary residence books
for several reasons: (1) Most migrant workers have no stable residence, as they rent rooms and
register under a collective list compiled by their landlords. (2) To receive a temporary residence
book, the temporary residence applicants must have proof of their ownership of a house or a legal
residence; if their home is a rental unit, borrowed, or offered by another individual for temporary
stay, they must get consent in writing from the owners (Article 30, Law on Residence 2006), while
in reality few people meet this condition. The worry regarding the possibility of loan repayment for
people who do not own homes in the local areas creates the conditions that restrict this group’s
access to loans offered by the city’s poverty reduction program2
.
“The loans are mainly for poor households having permanent residence, because the households
with temporary residence status have no stable housing, they could go elsewhere and then the local
organizations could not pursue them to repay the loan capital.” (IDI, staff of the Women’s Union, HCMC)
With the approach of a new multidimensional poverty measurement approved by MOLISA3
,
a large percentage of migrant workers now belong to poor households. According to a pilot
evaluation using multidimensional poverty assessment and sustainable poverty reduction
in HCMC, including temporary residents of 6 months or more, the households of temporary
residents have a multidimensional poverty rate 3 times higher than those with permanent
residence (HCMC People’s Committee, 2015, p.18).
2 The preferential credit sources for poor households and near poor households consisting of (1) the City Fund
for Poverty Reduction; (2) Credit of the Social Policy Bank: the program 316, loans for poor households to develop
production and business; Loans for students; Loans for Labour export; Loans for clean water & sanitation; (3) The
national fund for employment; (4) Fund 156; (5) CEP; (6) Credit Union Fund for Women.
3 According to the overall scheme “Conversing the poverty measurement from single to multi-dimensional
method for the period of 2016 - 2020” approved by the Prime Minister upon the Decision No. 1614 / QD-TTg dated
15/9 / 2015: besides the indicator on “income” to measure the poverty line upon the policy, there are also 10
different indicators to measure the people’s access to basic social services (health, education, housing, water
and sanitation and information); http://www.molisa.gov.vn/vi/Pages/chitiettin.aspx?IDNews=23458

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24 Brief Report: Legal and Practice Barriers For Migrant Workers in the Access to Social Protection
Box 2: Many migrant workers in the survey belonged to the group of multidimensional
poor in the viewpoint of their accessibility to basic social services:
Health care: 76.4% of migrant workers in the informal sector and 43.3% of migrant workers’
household members do not have health insurance.
Education: only 7.7% of migrant children go to public day care centers, and just 12% of
migrant children attend public kindergartens. 21.2% of migrant children aged between 6-14
do not attend school.
Housing: 85% of migrant workers live in rental rooms, 5.3% reside in a factory, 9.5% live in the
home of another person, and only 0.2% owns a residence. Although the average floor area is
6.6 m2
per person, which ensures a minimum of 5 m2
as required by the government, 12.3% of
housing is comprised of primitive houses and temporary shelters.
Electricity and water: 37% use drilled water wells. More than two-thirds of migrant workers
in the studied areas pay nearly three times as much as the ordinary price for water and twice
as much for electricity when compared with local permanent residents.
Latrine: 40.9% of migrant workers use simple latrines and 0.2% does not have toilets.
Information: 87.3% of migrant workers in the formal sector do not know where to obtain
information or advice on labour laws and social insurance.
1.4. Best practices on support for migrant workers regarding job
creation, insuring a stable income, and poverty reduction
There are a number of organizations which actively support employees to access information and
employment opportunities through direct service provisions or organization for migrant workers.
The job placement referral services which are suitable, of good quality, free of charge or provided
at low cost, are very important factors for migrant workers’ access. The migrant workers are
provided with employment information, and job skills or business skills improvement through self-
help groups, clubs, or cooperatives. These initiatives create favourable conditions for migrant
workers to improve their conditions. Migrant workers gather together to learn, to improve their
understanding of their rights, to increase their self–reliance and confidence, and to increase their
team spirit and integration in their new communities.
Model on linking the supply and demand of labour at the Employment Service Center
The Youth Employment Service Center in Ha Noi is under the management of the Ha Noi Communist
Youth Union. It has 25 years of experience in operation on providing support to young people with
rich and effective forms of activities. A special feature of the center is that there is no discrimination
between the people having permanent or temporary residence. The center organizes free job
placement for the employees. The center also provides advice and free training on urban integration
for the participants who are disadvantaged and vulnerable such as young people living in poverty,
with disabilities, or in drug addiction rehabilitation. To connect labour demand to labour supply,
the Center has regular contacts with more than 600 businesses and is a reliable location for a
number of social and non-governmental organizations to link together and to send needy people
in order to receive training, career advice, and job placement. Thanks to this, the Center has so far
introduced employment to many young people; for example, in just the first 6 months of 2015, the
Center provided employment advice to 13,167 people, found employment for 3,317 people, provided
vocational training advice to 1,984 people, and provided career advice to 30,000 people4
.
4 http://vieclamthanhnien.vn/tintuc/tinchitiet/tabid/111/Id/134/Trung-tam-Gioi-thieu-viec-lam-Thanh-
nien-Ha-Noi-Doi-moi-sang-tao-cung-tuoi-tre-Thu-do-lap-than-lap-nghiep.aspx

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
Model of the migrant workers’ cooperative “New Day”: migrant workers’ empowerment and
capacity building
The migration cooperative New Day was officially established and has operated since 2011 under
the Law on Cooperatives and Business Law, with the initial founders’ group of 15 people and the
technical support of LIGHT. The cooperative’s group of founders has contributed an initial capital
of 300,000 VND per person in order to express the members’ commitment. The cooperative has
achieved its purpose in linking the migrants, helping each other to develop the economy based
on the creation of endogenous resources, capacity building to create jobs, and sustainable
livelihoods for migrant workers.
The cooperative consists of 5 groups: the motorbike drivers group, the trolley/porters group,
the fruit vendors/hawkers group, the domestic staff group, and the animal husbandry group.
Cooperative members meet monthly. The members of the cooperative receive training from LIGHT
on planning and implementing small business plans, and also the pilot management of a small
support fund for home-based businesses. These small funds are revolving and have so far offered
support over 30 times to households doing business with a loan amounting from VND 1,000,000 to
4,000,000 per business model. The funds have helped some migrant households or individuals to
better develop the local economy. Besides this, cooperative members are also actively involved in
a number of community communication activities and capacity building for other immigrants who
live in Phuc Xa Ward, Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi.
This model is a new approach towards migrant workers, especially women migrant workers, with
lessons drawn on the empowerment and capacity building for migrant women workers through the
organization, rather than for each individual separately. This creates a collective dynamic based on
business and trade cooperation, focusing on 3 pillars: the individual promotion, sustainable family
livelihoods, and contribution to the migrant workers’ communities of origin and current employment.
Model of female domestic staff club: cooperation between the local Women’s Union (WU) and a
social organization (GFCD)
GFCD has worked with local partners, which are the Women’s Unions of Tan Dinh and Da Kao Wards
in HCMC, as well as Quan Hoa and Tan Nghia Wards in Ha Noi, in order to establish clubs for female
domestic workers. Each club has about 25 regular participants, comprising mostly women working
as domestic workers. Some clubs also mobilize the participation of women homeowners, thereby
creating cohesion and better understanding between employees and employers. Once a month,
clubs organize regular meeting on Saturday or Sunday, with the topics and content based on the
needs and choices of their members. Besides the diversified contents of activities in the clubs,
GFCD and its partners integrate communication and dissemination of legal knowledge related to
domestic work for both workers and homeowners, mobilize home owners and domestic staff to
sign labour contracts to create a better legal basis for the rights of both parties, and mobilize
domestic workers to purchase voluntary health insurance to provide better health care conditions
and better guarantees in terms of social protection.
The Club’s activities have achieved positive results, such as the impact of the female domestic
workers’ club in Dakao Ward, District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. Since its establishment 17 employers
have purchased health insurance, social insurance for their domestic workers, more than 10
employers financially contributed to 50% of the health insurance premium, mobilized benefactors
to help two domestic workers who are mothers of young children and who suffer from serious
diseases, and 3 other domestic workers received loans for starting small businesses.
“Thanks to joining the club, I better understand workers’ rights and the roles of domestic workers.
Now we can have some days off on the occasion of holidays and Tet (Lunar New Year). If we work on
Sundays, we should be paid more money, we have health insurance purchased by our employer, etc…
At the same time, I can see my professional skills have improved, and my relationship with my employer
has also improved... “(Mrs. DTTL, 52, club members, interviewed by telephone, September 2015)

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26 Brief Report: Legal and Practice Barriers For Migrant Workers in the Access to Social Protection
Ha Dang / Respect Vietnam
2. SOCIAL INSURANCE
The survey results show that on the one hand almost all surveyed migrant workers in the formal
sector have social insurance and unemployment insurance (97.8%), yet on the other hand, almost
no surveyed migrant workers in the informal sector have these kinds of insurance (99%). This
shows that social insurance for workers in the informal sector has not yet been attained, and
despite a change in policy in order to attract the participation in voluntary social insurance by
employees, this policy has not yet come to fruition.
2.1. Compulsory social insurance
According to Article 3 of the Social Insurance Law of 2006, compulsory social insurance is a form
of social insurance which employees and employers have to commit to. In detail, people who must
participate in the compulsory social insurance are those belonging to these groups: employees
working under labour contracts with a term of three full months or longer, employees with labour
contracts not having a time limit prescribed by the labour legislation, and employees, cooperative
members, and managers working and receiving salaries and wages according to the labour
contracts for three full months or more in cooperatives or cooperative unions which are set up
and operating under the Cooperative Law.
The provisions on compulsory social insurance under the Social Insurance Law and the documents
guiding their implementation have some progressive points such as: i) the regulation is relatively
consistent on the items of compulsory social insurance for employees; ii) gradual adjustment of
the amount of compulsory social insurance contributions and entitlements to ensure revenue and
expense balance for social insurance; iii) adjustment of compulsory social insurance payments
to ensure the principle of “the amount of benefits is calculated on the basis of social insurance
premiums and seniority of participation in the social insurance”; iv) to gradually expand the
categories of participants in compulsory social insurance, and increase the amount of benefits
from social insurance for employees to ensure that all employees are entitled to social insurance
when they have their income reduced or lost.

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Labor Rights Program of Oxfam in Vietnam
Legal and practical barriers to compulsory social insurance
Many migrant workers have not obtained social insurance since they do not have labour contracts,
or only have short term contracts or just a verbal agreement.
• Many employers do not sign labour contracts as prescribed by the law and avoid their
responsibilities towards their employees. While migrant workers are already vulnerable due
to being in a new environment and being displaced from their familiar social networks, they
readily accept work without labour contracts and accept disadvantages regarding non-wage
benefits. In this study, 100% of migrant workers in the construction sector and 50% of migrants
in the garments sector have only verbal contracts.
• Under the Articles 85 and 86 of the Social Insurance Law, the compulsory social insurance
contributions are calculated on a monthly salary basis. Many employers have relied on this
provision to sign two different contracts, a labour contract with the minimum wage used for
the compulsory social insurance, and yet another contract which contains the actual salary
paid to the employee. Once retired, the employees receive very low benefits based on the
signed contract with the minimum wage.
• Decree 95/2013/ND-CP stipulates sanctions for violations of the provisions of labour and
social insurance; however, the penalties provided in this Decree are so low that employers are
willing to pay the fines to avoid implementing the regulation. For example, when forced to pay
a fine of up to 2 million VND for not signing a labour contract for 10 employees, the employer
finds this profitable in comparison to paying 18% equivalent of 10 monthly salaries for the
compulsory social insurance of these 10 employees. With a maximum fine of 75 million for not
paying compulsory social insurance and unemployment insurance, employers in businesses
with hundreds of workers are willing to pay such a fine in order to avoid spending a much larger
amount performing their social duty.
• Furthermore, the lack of labour inspectors and investigators in labour relationships for the
monitoring and supervision of the application of the law and its enforcement is also a major
reason that employers are able to bypass the legal gaps.5
2.2. Voluntary social insurance
Article 2 of the Social Insurance Law of 2006 specifies the category of participants in social
insurance, namely that employees in the informal sector are entitled to voluntary social insurance,
including workers without labour contracts, labour contracts with a length of less than 3 months,
and the self-employed, etc. The fact that workers in the informal sector have been written into
the amendment of the Social Insurance Law is a new advancement towards ensuring a universal
social security for all citizens. Also, this law indicates that the document to be submitted for
social insurance records is a voluntary personal declaration form which is not based on residence
registration status. Therefore, migrant workers may participate in voluntary social insurance to
receive pensions and death benefits in their locations of employment. The Social Insurance Law
amended in 2014, entered into force on January 1st
, 2016, contains many improvements to the
Social Insurance Law of 2006 in the implementation of social insurance for migrant workers. The
category of participants in compulsory social insurance is extended to all workers possessing
contracts of length one month or more from any employer. This provides an opportunity for workers
in the informal sector who do seasonal work, domestic workers, and workers in small home-based
businesses to participate in social insurance. The bylaws system provides detailed regulations
5 In the whole country, there are currently 455 inspectors of the labour sector, in which the task force
on workplace safety comprises of around 50 cadres. In Ha Noi, there are only 17 labour inspectors and about… 3
labour safety high professionals. (http://nilp.org.vn/sp/id/589/Thanh-tra-lao-dong-Thieu-va-khong-chuyen)

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28 Brief Report: Legal and Practice Barriers For Migrant Workers in the Access to Social Protection
and guidelines for the implementation of various articles of the Law on Social Insurance, and
these legal documents have now been adjusted, amended and supplemented.
Voluntary social insurance has not completely penetrated migrant workers in the informal sector
The research findings showed that 99% of migrant workers in the informal sector have no social
insurance.
Table 1: Percentage of workers participate in social insurance and unemployment
insurance by sector
Formal sector Informal sector
No insurance at all 1.9% 99.0%
Social insurance (incl. pension) 97.8% 0.0%
Unemployment insurance 97.8% 0.0%
Legal and practical barriers to voluntary social insurance
Firstly, the communication on the social insurance policy is ineffective. The related stakeholders,
including employers and migrant workers are not interested in learning about and understanding
voluntary social insurance. Migrant workers are not yet interested, and do not understand the
benefits of social insurance. The qualitative interviews showed that the migrant workers in the
informal sector hardly know anything about voluntary social insurance and are indifferent to this
type of social insurance. For bricklayers or street vendors, the concept voluntary social insurance
is too unfamiliar. The most common thinking is “The future is too distant for me to worry about; I am
only concerned with my current income”. They do not want to spend an additional and significant
sum for social insurance contributions while they have to struggle to make money to cover their
daily living expenses. “No one has said anything about social insurance, and I go to work to earn
a monthly total of around 4 or 5 million VND, it is not enough to cover my basic needs. I have no
money to pay the social insurance.” (IDI of a bricklayer, HCMC). “As of now, I do not know anything
about social insurance; I only know how to do my sales work to earn my daily living. I save a small
sum for raising my children” (IDI, of a street vendor, Dong Nai Province).
Secondly, some employers who are owners of individual home-based business do not even know
these regulations exist. Most of them said that it was only necessary to fulfill tax obligations and
various other contributions in order to ensure basic fire safety and security requirements in order
to avoid getting into trouble with the local authorities. This shows that the information system
regarding legal policies in the informal sector is currently not under government’s control, and has
not really come to life.
Thirdly, voluntary social insurance premiums are beyond the migrant workers’ capacity in
comparison with their income in the informal sector. In cases where the migrant workers in the
informal sector want to buy voluntary social insurance, they must pay 22% of their income. With low
and unstable incomes, and the majority of their incomes being spent on basic needs, such a sum
for paying voluntary social insurance is not insignificant for migrant workers. The research team
explored the possibility of the migrant workers buying voluntary social insurance and discovered
that they are not yet prepared for this.
Fourthly, the regulation on voluntary social insurance is still inadequate in terms of legislation:
The participants of voluntary social insurance are not eligible to access the same entitlements as
the ones in the compulsory social insurance system. While compulsory social insurance covers the
employees’ medication in case of sickness, maternity, labour accidents, occupational diseases,
pension, or survivorship, voluntary social insurance covers only two of these items, which are
pension and survivorship. The remaining items such as sickness, maternity, labour accidents

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and occupational diseases cover the practical considerations in the lives of the workers in the
informal sector in general and female workers in particular. This limitation causes lack of desire to
participate in voluntary social insurance by many workers in the informal sector.
2.3. Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment Insurance aims to replace or partly compensate the workers’ income in case of
unemployment, support workers in cases of vocational training, job retention, and job placement
on the basis of payment to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (Employment Act 2013, Article 3).
After more than 5 years of implementation of Unemployment Insurance policies, the number of
participants in unemployment insurance has increased but is still a very small proportion of the
total number of employees. The benefit entitlements regulation of the unemployment policy has
not yet really attracted participants to unemployment insurance.
Legal and practical barriers
The eligibility requirements for unemployment insurance are difficult to meet. It is difficult for
migrant workers to fully meet the four conditions of unemployment insurance beneficiaries: 1)
Upon termination of the labour contract (except in cases of the employee’s unilateral and unlawful
termination of the labour contract) the employee is entitled to a monthly pension or invalidity
allowance. 2) The employee must have completed his/her full payment of 12 months or more
during the 24 month period prior to the termination of the labour contract for indefinite or definite
term labour contracts. For seasonal labour contract or employment with a term of full 3 months
to less than 12 months, the employee must fully pay unemployment insurance for 12 months
during the 36 month period prior to the termination of the labour contract. 3) The employee must
have submitted his/her application on unemployment benefits to an employment service center.
4) The individual must have not yet found employment after a period of 15 days of submitting
the unemployment benefits application, except for some cases such as: serving military service,
detention, or serving a prison term, etc. In these four conditions, there are two conditions in
derogation of unemployment insurance benefits to employees: they have fully completed the
payment of unemployment insurance for 12 months or more during the 24 month period prior
to termination of the labour contract and have submitted his/her application documents on
unemployment allowance at an employment service center.
The method of calculating the financial allowance of unemployment insurance causes inequality
between low income workers and the high income employees. This has resulted in an inequitable
redistribution of income. The support level of 1% from the government budget in proportion with
the income causes great disparity between the highest income and lowest income employees. This
will create conditions for high-income employees to receive higher benefits while unemployed.
Specifically, an employee earning VND 15 million per month participating in the unemployment
insurance scheme will receive 1%, amounting to VND 150,000, while an employee with a monthly
salary of VND 1.5 million will only receive a monthly sum of VND 15,000.
2.4. Best practices on support for access to social insurance
The support models for workers to access social insurance focus on improving the migrant
workers’ legal knowledge, providing capacity building to migrant workers on negotiating skills,
and agreements with their employers and proposals to the government in order to better protect
their interests at their residence and workplace. Employees with better knowledge of negotiating
skills will share their knowledge and skills with their friends and colleagues. This is a very effective
method for spreading knowledge and experience among employees living in conditions with limited
resources. In case of necessity, lawyers will provide support free of charge in order to protect the
rights of employees at the labour court. These actions are what employees cannot afford as the
pursuit of legal recourse is very costly.

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Model of mobile legal advice for migrant workers at the Center for Legal Advice of Dong Nai Labour
Union (DNLAC)
The project on “Enhancing access to information and legal advice for migrant workers in Dong
Nai province” was implemented by DNLAC with the support of Oxfam between 2010 to 2014 and
is still in operation. The special characteristics of the project are the model of the workers core
group with about 400 core group workers who are able to actively organize mobile legal advising
programs, directing communication and legal advising for employees.
The Workers’ Core Group has been trained in knowledge of labour laws, social insurance, health
insurance, the Labour Union, legal aid skills, communication skills, life skills, gender equality,
reproductive health, good life organizing skills, and marriage and family. After training courses, the
Workers’ Core Group has shared their legal knowledge, and organized entertainment and legal aid
programs for workers in companies and boarding houses. Through this method, the provincial Labour
Union has established and expanded the Workers’ Core Group and legal aid sessions to the workers’
intensive residential areas. The Workers’ Core Group is also the nucleus of operations of ‘worker support
houses’ at the three areas of Bien Hoa, Nhon Trach district. and Trang Bom district in Dong Nai Province.
DNLAC is connected with the network of core groups of workers via a two-way communication system
and regular meetings. Thanks to these systems, all information sharing from the Center to the core
groups of workers or vice versa has been disseminated in an easy and timely fashion.
The greatest efficiency of the Workers’ Core Group network is the replication and sustainability of
the communication and legal aid activities. Being an extended arm of the lawyers, the advisers of
DNLAC and the Labour Federation of Dong Nai province, the Workers’ Core Group contributes greatly
by bringing legal knowledge and life skills to every boarding house and industrial park areas and
significantly increases the number of workers who successfully defend their rights and interests.
Legal Aid Center No.1 of Ha Noi and its Model of support for workers to protect their rights when
facing job loss
Being one of the 12 centers for legal aid and judicial support belonging to the Viet Nam Judicial
Support Association for the Poor (VIJUSAP), the Legal Aid Center No.1 of Ha Noi provides free legal
aid services and legal support to the poor, migrant workers, and other disadvantaged groups. The
center has 20 permanent officers, including lawyers and experts trained in the social sciences
such as jurisprudence, sociology, psychology, journalism and communications, and a network of
collabourators including 250 lawyers of VIJUSAP system and the Hanoi Lawyer Association.
According to the Center Director, Lawyer Hoang Van Giang, “There were many cases of protecting
workers’ social insurance benefits within the overall support of the Center to the workers last
year. Particularly in December 2014, the center initiated an administrative lawsuit for a couple
arriving from Thanh Hoa province and working at the Dai Tu- Long Bien Industrial Zone. After
signing a twelve month contract, the company producing spare automotive parts moved to a new
location and only brought the company’s main workers, including the boss’s relatives, and fired
all remaining workers with yearly labour contracts. When the Center received the request for legal
aid and the consultation documents, the Center immediately contacted the company. At first the
company refused to cooperate. The Center helped the workers to sue them in a court of law. After
the successful first conciliation session, the company provided the employees with a pension
fund of 4 months of unemployment. Fortunately, such cases have signed labour contracts. The
special point is that these workers were aware of their rights, and therefore they took actions
such as involving the press, the local police officers and the center’s lawyer’6
.
6 In depth interview with Lawyer Hoang Van Giang, July 2015.

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Oxfam Vietnam
3. SOCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR MIGRANT WORKERS
Social assistance includes programs and policies to support marginalized and disadvantaged
groups, providing financial support to orphans, people with disabilities, elderly and lonely people,
supporting and caring for children under 6 years old, people facing serious health problems
and epidemic diseases such as HIV or mental health issues, etc., or for people who encounter
unexpected difficulties as a result of natural disasters or other unforeseen reasons.
In addition to nationwide social protection policies, many other local policies provide support for
households and individuals falling into extreme poverty by taking budgets from local resources.
Justin2014inHCMC, theCityprogramforpovertyreductionandqualityoflife improvement mobilized
about 659 billion VND of non-refundable aid to support the purchase of health insurance, medical
care co-payment, educational assistance, housing, vocational training for poor workers, poverty
reduction capacity building, and other support to poor and nearly poor households (according to
the HCMC Steering Committee on Poverty Reduction Programme, 2015). As the policy on expansion
of beneficiaries is reserved for people holding long-term residence status, the majority of people
surveyed people were not eligible for these benefits.
In the survey sample, there were only 2 people receiving social assistance from local authorities. Both
persons were migrants, one was a person with a disability making a living by selling lottery tickets, and
the other person had received no regular social assistance at all, although their lives were precarious
and especially difficult. 13.2% of children under 6 years old are still living without health insurance.
Legal and practical barriers
Although children under 6 years old are eligible for free health insurance, 13.2% of children of surveyed
migrant workers still do not have access to health insurance due to a lack of birth certificates, lack of
information, inadequate instruction, lack of clear and understandable instruction, or because their
parents are too busy at work to have sufficient time to apply for health insurance.

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Box 3: Children under 6 years old are eligible for health insurance
A pair of migrant workers with a 5 year old child work in Dong Nai Province. They indicated that
their family came from Ca Mau two years ago to earn a living and to pay off debt after they failed
at shrimp farming. To rent a boarding room, they must give a copy of their identity cards to the
landlord for temporary registration. The husband said, “Since my arrival in Dong Nai, I have not
yet met any local officials or local policeman asking after me. Only the boarding room owner
comes here monthly to collect the rental fee”. The son has no health insurance for children
under 6 years old, but the father does not know where to apply for health insurance for his
son. Currently, his son attends a private kindergarten near the residence but he does not know
whether his son will be eligible for public school or not later on when he is to start grade 1, “I’ll
just wait and see” (IDI, Garment worker in the formal sector, Dong Nai).
Migrant workers are not yet considered as beneficiaries of social assistance policies at their
locations of employment. Due to lack of permanent residence registration, and because of being
excluded from the poverty assessment, most migrant workers and their families living in the
city are excluded from the city social protection programs in the locations where they are living,
despite difficult living conditions need of support for their livelihoods. Migrant workers clearly feel
their “marginalized” status; they are not true citizens at the places where they are residing.
Best Practices for Social Assistance
Many organizations and individuals are now involved in mobilizing their communities to support
migrant workers, especially in cases requiring unplanned expenses such as weddings and
funerals, holidays, sickness, etc. There are various forms of support through the clubs (such as
the workers living in boarding rooms Club, the boarding room owners’ Club of the Youth Union and
Women’s Union), mutual fund assistance (such as the Support Fund for migrant workers of the
Youth Union), or other movements (such as the “ticket of love” sponsored by the Labour Union,
which helps migrant workers to return home on the occasion of the Lunar New Year). All of these
forms of support have helped many migrant workers struggling with difficulties. These are very
practical initiatives of the local communities, contributing to the government’s efforts to ensure
social protection for people in need.
The “Mutual Fund for Young Workers”, the “Workers Mutual Support Club”, the “Cultural residential
area” and the “Cultural Boarding House Owners’ Club” organized by the Youth Union of Ho Chi
Minh City all provide social support to migrant workers.
The “Workers Mutual Support Club” of the boarding houses mobilizes local community resources
from the core members who are the boarding houses’ owners, sweet-hearted individuals, and
generous businesses. They contribute and set up the “Workers Mutual Support Club” in order
to pay visits and encourage the workers on the occasion of workers’ celebrations (birthdays,
weddings, births, etc.), and pay visits to the workers faced with sickness or difficulties. These
clubs are really useful and practical playgrounds for young migrant workers staying in boarding
houses. They offer workers social connections to one another, to the Youth Union, and to
community resources. Through the support of the Fund on the occasions of joy or sorrow, young
migrant workers and their children have one more secure platform providing them with the ability
to partly cover shortages due to the macroeconomic policies on social security, particularly when
the workers face unexpected shocks which are beyond their ability to fight. In short, these are
solutions at micro level and involve short-term social support. However, in the long run, these
solutions contribute to the process of integration into urban life for young migrant workers.

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The support fund for migrant workers of the Binh Duong Provincial Youth Union,establishedin2007,
is a support platform for young workers with particularly difficult circumstances such as sickness,
occupational accidents, traffic accidents, and other cultural and spiritual considerations. Since
its establishment, the Fund has supported 416 cases of migrant workers encountering unexpected
difficulties such as sickness, occupational accidents, traffic accidents and other cultural and
spiritual considerations, with a total amount of over 800 million VND, offering support of 1 to 5
million VND per case. This is a model of connections to social resources, joining the hands of many
stakeholders through the provincial Youth Union’s role as connector and coordinator.
4. ACCESS TO BASIC SOCIAL SERVICES OF MIGRANT WORKERS
To ensure equitable access to basic social services by all citizens, the Communist Party and State
have issued policies to support the people’s access to basic social services in education, health
care, housing, clean water, information, and communication. This includes many policies supporting
migrant workers’ access to basic social services. The education policy has created conditions for
migrant children possessing temporary residence books to be guaranteed attendance at local school
in their current locations. The migrant workers’ right to access to health care services has also been
expanded based upon their temporary residence books. Children can obtain their birth certificates at
the location where their mothers have registered their temporary residence. Children under 6 years of
age possessing a birth certificate can also receive health insurance free of charge. Migrant workers
can also participate in health insurance at their location of temporary residence registration.
The State has issued many mechanisms and policies to support housing for workers at industrial
zones. In order to facilitate migrant workers’ access to clean water, following to the policy of
increasing the proportion of people using clean water at all migrant workers’ intensive areas, there
is a policy to increasing the quota of low priced clean water consumption for migrant worker tenants.
The information system is becoming increasingly widespread, penetrating many forms of mass
media which are associated with modern trends, such as social networks on the internet and mobile
phones, as well as traditional media like newspapers, radio, and word-of-mouth communication.
The migrant workers increasingly have better opportunities to access basic social services.
However, the extent of their access is still relatively limited in comparison to their needs. ActionAid’s
research (2014) shows that 90% of migrant workers do not have access to basic services such
as social security and public policies in their locations of employment. The survey results of the
research team show migrant workers’ access to basic social services as follows:
4.1. Education
21.2% of the total 52 surveyed children in the age group of 6 to 14 who follow their migrant
workers parents to live at the location of their employment do not attend school. These are
alarming figures about the status of children without access to education system.
Only 7.7% of migrant children attend public day care centers, and just 12% of migrant children
attend public kindergartens. Most children go to private nursery schools and kindergartens or
home-based child care groups.
Legal and practical barriers to migrant workers of formal sector
Precarious living conditions for migrant families, the parents’ lack of time to care for children, and the
surrounding social environment clearly cause adverse effects to the education of migrant children.
Furthermore, barriers to transferring schools and new school admission procedures are also major
factors which were mentioned during the survey. There are many reasons for this situation, but