Decree No. 155/2004/ND-CP dated August 10, 2004 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 41/2002/ND-CP dated April 11, 2002 on policies towards laborers redundant due to the restructuring of state enterprises

DECREE

AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING A NUMBER OF ARTICLES OF THE GOVERNMENT’S DECREE NO. 41/2002/ND-CP OF APRIL 11, 2002 ON POLICIES TOWARDS LABORERS REDUNDANT DUE TO THE RESTRUCTURING OF STATE ENTERPRISES

THE GOVERNMENT

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the June 23, 1994 Labor Code and the April 2, 2002 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Labor Code;

Pursuant to the November 26, 2003 Law on State Enterprises;

At the proposal of the Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs,

DECREES:

Article 1.- To amend and supplement a number of articles of the Government's Decree No. 41/2002/ND-CP of April 11, 2002 on policies towards laborers redundant due to the restructuring of State enterprises as follows:

1. Article 1 is amended and supplemented as follows:

"Article 1.- This Decree's application scope covers State companies which apply the restructuring measures approved by competent State agencies, including:

1. State companies, independent cost-accounting member companies and non-business units of corporations invested and set up under the State's decisions (hereinafter called corporations), which undertake the restructuring according to Article 17 of the Labor Code.

2. State companies and independent cost-accounting member companies of corporations, which are transformed into State-run one-member limited liability companies or limited liability companies with two or more members.

3. State companies, dependent cost-accounting units of State companies, independent cost-accounting member companies and dependent cost-accounting units of independent cost-accounting member companies of corporations, which are transformed into joint-stock companies; joint-stock companies transformed from dependent cost-accounting companies and units of the above-stated companies, which have their restructuring plans approved by the companies' Management Boards and certified by competent State agencies within 12 months as from the date of being granted the business registration certificates according to the Enterprise Law.

4. State companies and independent cost-accounting member companies of corporations, which are subject to merger, amalgamation, split-up or separation.

5. State companies and independent cost-accounting member companies of corporations, which are subject to the assignment, sale, business contracting or lease.

6. State companies and independent cost-accounting member companies of corporations, which are bankrupt or dissolved.

7. State companies and independent cost-accounting member companies of corporations, which are transformed into non-business units.

8. State-run agricultural farms and forestry farms, which are reorganized under Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW of June 16, 2003 of the Party's Political Bureau on the continued restructuring, renewal and development of State-run agricultural and forestry farms.

9. State companies taking other forms of restructuring under the Prime Minister's decisions.

10. State companies of political organizations or socio-political organizations, which are set up under the decisions of the presidents of the provincial/municipal People's Committees or the ministers of the ministries performing the econo-technical management over their main business lines, then transformed into one-member limited liability companies, limited liability companies with two or more members or joint-stock companies operating under the Enterprise Law."

2. Article 2 is amended and supplemented as follows:

"Article 2.- Subject to the application of this Decree are laborers performing labor contracts with indefinite terms or with terms of between full 12 months to 36 months, including:

1. Redundant laborers in companies and units (hereinafter referred collectively to as companies) undertaking the restructuring according to the provisions in Article 1 (except Clause 6) of this Decree, who had been recruited to work in the State sector before April 21, 1998 (the time of implementation of the Prime Minister's Directive No. 20/1998/CT-TTg on boosting the restructuring and renewal of State enterprises), including:

a/ Working laborers, for whom, upon the restructuring, the companies cannot arrange jobs though they have sought every measure to create jobs;

b/ Laborers who are on the companies' regular payrolls but have no work to do (having been waiting for jobs) and, by the time of restructuring, the companies still cannot arrange jobs for them.

2. Laborers in dissolved or bankrupt companies.

3. Laborers who are on the regular payrolls of the State-run agricultural or forestry farms and had been recruited to work in the State sector before April 21, 1998 and, for whom, by the time of restructuring, the State-run agricultural or forestry farms cannot arrange jobs though having taken every measure to create jobs or have not applied the regime of land or forest assignment.

Particularly for cases where the laborers have been assigned land and/or forests of the State-run agricultural or forestry farms, if the labor relations between the employers and the employees terminate, the regimes prescribed in this Decree shall not apply, but they shall be entitled to the severance allowance according to Article 42 of the Labor Code."

3. Article 5 is amended and supplemented as follows:

"Article 5.- Laborers who have received allowances under the provisions in Clause 3, Article 3 of this Decree, if being again recruited into the companies or the State-run agricultural or forestry farms which have asked them to leave their jobs or to other companies and agencies of the State sector, or being assigned land and/or forests by the agricultural or forestry farms, shall have to refund the allowance amounts as provided for at Point b, Clause 3, Article 3 of this Decree.

The companies, State-run agricultural or forestry farms, and other agencies of the State sector, which have recruited labor, or the agricultural or forestry farms which assign land or forests, shall have to retrieve the above-stated money amounts from the laborers and remit the whole sums into the support fund for laborers redundant due to the restructuring of State enterprises set up under Article 7 of this Decree."

4. Clause 2, Article 7 is amended and supplemented as follows:

"2. The redundant labor-support fund shall have to provide funding for companies (including funding for the payment of prescribed amounts for titles defined at Point 4, Section II of the Government's Resolution No. 09/2003/NQ-CP of July 28, 2003 amending and supplementing the Government's Resolution No. 16/2000/NQ-CP of October 18, 2000 on streamlining payrolls of administrative agencies and non-business units); social insurance agencies; establishments providing job training for redundant laborers; organizations set up to settle redundant laborers in the dissolved or bankrupt companies; non-business units under State corporations; and State-run agricultural and forestry farms, including funding for payment of severance allowances according to Article 42 of the Labor Code as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 2 of this Decree."

5. The phrase "State enterprises" in the Government's Decree No. 41/2002/ND-CP of April 11, 2002 is now superseded by "State companies".

Article 2.- This Decree takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette. All previous regulations contrary to this Decree are hereby annulled.

Article 3.- The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the provincial/municipal People's Committees shall have to implement this Decree.