Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance a comparison with german law

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW FACULTY OF CIVIL LAW BACHELOR THESIS VIETNAMESE LAW ON UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE – A COMPARISON WITH GERMAN LAW STUDENT: Course: 32 SUPERVISOR: VÕ NGUYỄN QUỲNH ANH Student code: 3220018 PhD LÊ THỊ THÚY HƯƠNG HO CHI MINH CITY - 2011 DECLARATION I hereby state that the thesis is my own work carried out under the guidance of the supervisor All the sources I have used or quoted have been acknowledged by means of complete references Full Name: Võ Nguyễn Quỳnh Anh Date: July 20 2011 Signature: Page TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 1.1 Overview of unemployment 1.1.1 The concept of unemployment and unemployed persons .5 1.1.2 The impact of unemployment on economic and social life 1.2 Overview of unemployment insurance 1.2.1 The concept of unemployment insurance 1.2.2 Forms of unemployment insurance 11 1.2.3 The role of unemployment insurance 14 1.2.4 The basic principles of unemployment insurance 14 1.2.5 The comparison between unemployment insurance and social insurance 16 1.3 Conclusion 18 CHAPTER VIETNAMESE LAW ON UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE IN COMPARISON WITH GERMAN LAW AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT 19 2.1 The comparison between Vietnamese law and German law on unemployment insurance 18 2.1.1 The coverage of unemployment insurance 19 2.1.1.1 Vietnamese law .19 2.1.1.2 German law 21 Page 2.1.2 Qualifying conditions for unemployment insurance 22 2.1.2.1 Vietnamese law .22 2.1.2.2 German law 25 2.1.3 Formation of unemployment insurance fund 26 2.1.3.1 Vietnamese law .26 2.1.3.2 German law 30 2.1.4 Utilization of unemployment insurance fund 31 2.1.4.1 Vietnamese law .31 2.1.4.2 German law 40 2.2 Some recommendations to improve Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance 44 2.2.1 To clarify the concept of unemployed persons .45 2.2.2 To broaden the coverage of unemployment insurance 45 2.2.3 To increase the contribution from employers to unemployment insurance fund 44 2.2.4 To supplement some regulations on unemployment benefit 46 2.2.5 To increase and clarify the State management for unemployment insurance scheme 47 CONCLUSION 49 Page INTRODUCTION The necessity of research After shifting from central planning towards a market economy, Vietnamese economy and society has changed significantly However, like many countries all over the world, in parallel with economic prosperity, market economy brought about social instability through unemployment In the context of the global economic crisis, it is stated that global unemployment rate remains persistently high, which stood about 6.2 percent, equivalent to 205 million unemployed The year 2010 has seen a halt to the sharp rise in unemployment in the world, but the surge to 203.3 million unemployed through 2011 forecasted by International Labor Organization1 is the major economic and social issue confronting policy makers.2 In Vietnam, even though it has been a slight decrease in unemployment rate by 0.02 percent overall in 2010, the number of unemployed has not been thought to fall because of the rise in labor force.3 Unemployment insurance, one of the most effective social security policy, has been established and improved considerably through many years in both developed and developing countries After a lot of argument and revision, on 29 June 2006, the Social Insurance Law of Vietnam4, which officially stipulated unemployment insurance enforcement, was passed Unemployment insurance scheme is expected to not only support unemployed persons‟ income but also motivate them to return to work actively Consequently, unemployment insurance is the key to recover damages caused by economic crisis to employees‟ lives and to improve the conditions in labor market in Vietnam at present hereinafter abbreviated as ILO ILO (2011), Global Employment Trends 2011, Geneva, p.12-13 http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/3455/vietnam-s-unemployment-rate-is-over-2-8-percent-in-2010.html Law No.71/2006/QH11 dated July 12, 2006 of the National Assembly on Social Insurance (hereinafter referred to as Social Insurance Law) Page Nevertheless, unemployment insurance has first established, so Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance has shown some disadvantages due to the lack of experience in implementing the law The legislation needs to be improved to be clearer, more feasible and more effective by remedying the shortcomings, clarifying ambiguous provisions and limiting unofficial documents Moreover, increasing the quality of research projects on this issue will also help strengthen the legal system Due to above reasons, this thesis is written under the topic: “Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance- A comparison with German law” The purpose of the thesis Firstly, the thesis aims at clarifying basic theoretical issues related to the research such as the concept of unemployment and the unemployed and the impact of unemployment to social life Furthermore, the thesis clarifies the concept of unemployment insurance along with some forms of unemployment insurance, points out the importance of unemployment insurance scheme and shows its basic principles Once this phase is completed, there are comparisons between unemployment insurance and social insurance Afterwards, the thesis will compare Vietnamese law and German law regarding unemployment insurance so as to find out the similarities and differences in some provisions Finally, from the experience of German law as well as Vietnamese‟s lack of specification and rationality in the regulations determining unemployment insurance practices, the thesis will propose some recommendations which are suitable for circumstances in Vietnam to improve the law on unemployment insurance The scope of the thesis Due to time and material limitations, the author has certain limitation in some issues which are the objects of the study as follows: Page Firstly, the thesis will focus on analyzing unemployment insurance under the spirit of labor law Therefore, within the scope of this thesis, the general issues of unemployment in consideration of economics theory will not be mentioned Moreover, the thesis will not include the structure and work ability of State management agencies in charge of social insurance but the coverage of unemployment insurance, unemployment benefits as well as unemployment insurance fund With regard to selection of foreign jurisdiction for comparison, the thesis will only focus on researching German law for the reason that Germany is one of the developing countries having long tradition of enforcement of unemployment insurance law and high level of codification The methodology of the thesis The basic method used in the process of research this topic is materialistic dialectics On that base, the author will combine different legal methods as follows: - Comparative method: To study Vietnamese and German legislation and identify their similarities and differences in the relevant fields Furthermore, to try to know the background and explain reasons of those similarities and differences - Synthetic method: From all academic materials such as books, legal journals and sources of law, to set a general overview and to try to get active objective rules and ideas - Analytical method: To clarify the fundamental concepts as well as to access the realities and to draw suitable suggestions to the problems from logical thoughts The literature review of the research In Vietnam, although there have been a number of research works on social insurance law or social security law, the researches on unemployment insurance under legal aspect are not substantially concerned According to the author„s research, before Page effect of unemployment insurance law in 2009, beside some research projects, i.e “Unemployment insurance in Vietnamese market economy” (Le Thi Hoai Thu) as well as Unemployment and the formation of unemployment insurance scheme in Vietnamese market economy” (Do Nang Khanh), there are several academic articles in legal journals such as State and Law Review, Judicial Science Review or Jurisdiction Review and Social Insurance Review However, these researches focused on analyzing unemployment insurance as a part of social insurance and making some suggestions to help to build unemployment insurance law From 2009 to present, there are certain researches concerning unemployment insurance Among them, the master thesis named “Vietnamese legislation on unemployment insurance- Theoretical and practical issues” of Nguyen Thi Mong Tram (2010) is the most remarkable one The thesis does intensive research on Vietnamese legislation on unemployment insurance Besides, the thesis also figures out some shortcomings through researching the application in practice In the book “Social security legislation- Experiences from some countries for Vietnam” of Ph.D Tran Hoang Hai and Ph.D Le Thi Thuy Huong, through discussion about foreign law on social security, there are some recommendations arisen to improve the quality of social security Nonetheless, by the author‟s research, the foreign law on unemployment insurance respectively still has not gotten much consideration Taking the above into account, my thesis will focus on researching deeply foreign law in order to acquire valuable experience to improve Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance The structure of the thesis This thesis is divided into two chapters: - Chapter 1: Overview of unemployment and unemployment insurance Chapter 2: Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance in comparison with German law and recommendations for improvement Page CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 1.3 Overview of unemployment 1.3.1 The concept of unemployment and the unemployed Unemployment, as defined by ILO in Article 20 of ILO Convention 102 of 1952, is “suspension of earnings, as defined by national laws or regulations, due to inability to obtain suitable employment in the case of a person protected who is capable of, and available for, work.” In addition to “be capable of work” and “be available for work”, ILO Convention 168 pointed “be actually seeking work” as a signal of an unemployed person Based on the three criteria "without work", "currently available for work", and "seeking work", at the thirteenth International Conference of Labor Statisticians in Geneva in 1982, a single definition of unemployment was confirmed along with the provision allowing for the relaxation of “seeking work” criterion in certain situations This provision was believed to facilitate international statistics comparisons and prevent the circumstances where the standard definition cannot capture the prevailing employment conditions in many countries Up to date, it has been estimated that at least 115 countries and territories accepted that the “unemployed” comprise all people above the minimum specified age for measuring the economically active population who during the reference period were:  “without work”;  “currently available for work”; and  “seeking work”.5 In terms of the criterion “without work”, there is some circumstances where employees lose their workplace In the ILO definition of employment, it is classified “means of ILO (1982), Report from the thirteenth international conference of labor statisticians, Geneva, p.12 Page production” into two categories which are paid employment and self employment Paid-employed workers should be “at work”, i.e having specific careers and “performing some work for wage or salary”, or could be even “with job but not at work… and have a formal attachment to their job” People in self employment are defined as being “at work”, i.e owning workshops, farms, stores or running family business and “performing work for profit or family gain” or being “with an enterprise but not at work… for any specific reason”.6 The main point in this definition is the formal job attachment, not the main activity So some people such as students, homemakers and others who are mainly engaged in non-economic activities during reference period could be considered employed Moreover, employed and unemployed persons should be in a specific age range The discussion relevant to the minimum and maximum age of labor force has not come to an end The international recommendation is just the basis for countries to set a suitable age limit in accordance with the national conditions Furthermore, employees “without work” have to register for unemployment at employment agencies This was not mentioned in ILO Convention but in practice, registering for unemployment helps the government keep statistic of the unemployed and the unemployment rate Therefore, the government can actively perceive employment situation to create more jobs for the unemployed Secondly, the criterion “currently available for work” is found in the circumstances where workers are able and ready to work The ability to work of laborers involves in age limit and work capability Age limit discussed above shows the best period of time which was thought to be suitable for laborers to work to earn their livings Also, work capability may express in workers‟ physical and mental characteristics relevant to work procedures as well as academic qualifications or previous useful experience In addition to work ability, the key point of the current availability for work is the readiness to work which is tested in some appropriate practical tests to check the willingness to take up paid employment or the readiness to undertake self employment Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1997), Guidelines on employment- Supplement to the Programme for the World Census of Agriculture 2000, Rome, p.4 Page 10 insurance premiums paid by social insurance organizations are not greater than 6% of unemployment allowance61 in duration which they are on monthly unemployment allowance Therefore, when laborers are no longer entitled to unemployment allowance, they may not enjoy health insurance and shall return health insurance cards to social insurance organizations under regulations.62 2.1.4.2 German law In Germany, unemployment insurance fund is used to operate some following functions: Benefits for the unemployed; Payments under a program guaranteeing salaries for employees of bankrupt companies; Vocational guidance and counseling as well as vocational training; Job placement; Granting of allowances for the maintenance and creation of employment; Heath and old-age insurance premiums payments  Unemployment benefits 63  Amount and duration of benefit The unemployed is stipulated to receive the benefit at the level of 60% of the insured‟s net earnings However, if they are married and have at least one child, the amount of unemployment benefit should increase to 67% of their previous income.64 In general, the remuneration on which unemployment benefit is based is the covered earnings received during the last sixty days prior to the worker‟s unemployment “The benefit is paid for to 24 months, according to the length of the covered work period and the 61 Point d Clause Article 13 of Health Insurance Law Clause Article of Circular No 32/2010/TT-BLDTBXH 63 Benefits for the unemployed consist of unemployment benefits and unemployment assistance; however, in the scope of the thesis, there is only discussion about unemployment benefits as a main financial assistance paid to the entitled unemployed 64 ILO (2010), Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Europe 2010, p.119 62 Page 44 claimant‟s age For example, employees should be paid the benefit for up to 24 months if they are older than age 58 with at least 48 months of covered work.”65 Moreover, the amount of benefit is not unchanged German law provides the situation when eligible workers receive additional sources of income so the benefit will be deducted by fifty percent of any additional income However, if the amount of additional income66 earned by eligible unemployed laborers plus the unemployment benefit is greater than eighty percent of their previous covered earnings, the benefit will be reduced with the fully additional income.67 For instance, a worker is employed in a factory and has the average salary of 2000€ per month After being accepted to enjoy monthly unemployment benefit, he receives 1200€ per month in months However, he also has a part-time job which does not make him get out of the state of unemployment yet If his monthly salary for this part-time job equals to 400€, his benefit will be from 1000€ to less than 1200€ If his salary is more than 400€, his benefit is reduced to only 800€ Thus, reducing the unemployment benefit in this case will strengthen the financial ability of unemployment insurance fund This point is set out on the basis that unemployment insurance is just to help employees in their difficult duration; so, when their financial burden drops, it is reasonable to give their benefit up  Suspension and disqualification of benefit According to AFG §117 and §118, unemployed person would experience a suspension of enjoying unemployment benefit in case he receives some types of additional earnings, for instance, dismissal compensation or severance pay due to termination of the employment contract as well as accident benefits, maternity pay, student benefits and other specified allowances This suspension lasts until laborers stop receiving such income Once this period is over, his enjoyment of unemployment benefit will continue.68 65 Ibid This amount has been treated taxes, social insurance premiums and other professional expenses 67 James M Klein (1987), Ibid., p 192 68 Ibid 66 Page 45 Germany law on unemployment insurance also prescribes that the unemployed may be disqualified from unemployment benefit in a period of 12 weeks at maximum if he: “Terminates his employment relationship or through his conduct causes his employer to dismiss him; Refuses employment offered him by a local employment office; Refuses to participate in or abandons a program of vocational training”69 Once one of the above events occurs, the duration of disqualification will start to be applied to the unemployed In relation to the first circumstances where unemployed laborer terminates his past employment relationship unilaterally without good causes or causes his own dismissal because of his wrongful conduct, laborer will be disqualified for 12 weeks, or weeks due to some personal hardship With regard to other reasons for disqualification, the period is just weeks, or weeks in case of hardship Besides, the Promotion Act also points out some specific situations when an unemployed laborer will not be disqualified from unemployment benefit although he refuses to take part in a vocational training or refuses employment after being warned the legal consequences of such refusal These provisions are generally valid reasons for the laborer‟s refusal in the scope that policy makers allow Although both suspension and disqualification lead to an interruption in the duration of enjoying unemployment benefit, there are many differences among them First, laborer‟s unemployment benefit is just suspended during any period when he receives other remuneration in order to reduce the financial burden of unemployment insurance fund However, disqualification from unemployment benefit is punitive in nature Second, the duration of enjoying unemployment benefit may be suspended many times due to specified payment In contrast, if laborer is disqualified for the first time, he can become eligible to continue his unemployment benefit; however, if the situation happens once again, this will make him disqualified for the remainder of benefit 69 Ibid p.192 Page 46 In general, the German unemployment benefit policy is quite different from Vietnamese in some aspects It is clearly stated that there are more types of unemployment benefit in German such as unemployment benefit, short-time work benefit70, short-time transfer allowance71, bad weather allowance72, so that laborers who have any difficulties in their employment receives allowance from unemployment insurance fund to recover damages Moreover, there is a difference in the amount of benefits between single laborers and laborers who have at least one child Besides, laborer‟s suspension of enjoying unemployment benefits is significantly different in nature and there is no provision on termination of unemployment benefit as well as lump-sum benefit  Vocational guidance and counseling and vocational training This type of function of unemployment insurance fund is felt to be quite professional when employment offices through labor market and vocational research are responsible for advising juveniles and adults on the choice of a trade or profession prior to their entrance into the job market as well as answering questions regarding professional guidance subsequent to entering employment This step is essential for laborers who need information from surveys or statistical data to consider which working skills they have to improve After their decision on vocational training is made, they are provided with information about updated training programs and financial assistance to ensure vocational training Vocational guidance service and vocational training are always available in regional and local employment office so laborers can register to participate when they feel necessary In addition to training expenses, the eligible laborer who receives unemployment benefits right before applying to vocational training will receive an amount of allowance to recover his living expenses during the course These provision shows that the State creates more opportunity for laborers including juveniles and adults to enter labor market with their best skills Although it cannot be compared regarding the quality of vocational training, the Vietnamese assistance for vocational training limited below 300,000 Dong is certainly much less than training expenses and living expenses in Germany 70 Paid to short-time workers who lose working hours due to economic restructuring Paid to short-time workers to avoid dismissal due to economic restructuring in the workplace 72 Paid to construction workers whose work is halted because of bad weather 71 Page 47  Job placement In Germany, job placement service is operated through “the placement of individual jobseekers and the provision of manpower for employers”73 Thus, beside employer who has job vacancies, German utilization of job placement service is available for not only unemployed persons, but all employers whose applicants are accepted by employment office This service is free to individual jobseekers but costs employers to cover expenses and requires cooperation with employers to create job opportunities in the shortest time German and Vietnamese public employment offices make monopoly of job placement service Although some people thought that private office would be more flexible in dealing with placement activities, public employment office whose main goal is not making profit is felt to protect both parties‟ interests better  Health insurance and old-age insurance payment Together with receiving unemployment benefit, heath insurance and old-age insurance premiums of eligible worker are paid from deduction of unemployment insurance fund Subsequently, in the period of unemployment, he can continue to be covered medical treatment in the event of serious illness or accidents Moreover, the duration of paying old-age premiums is not suspended so it is beneficial for them to enjoy old-age pension when they are past working age At the present, Vietnamese social organization is stipulated to pay health insurance premiums for unemployed laborer who satisfies qualification conditions but the provision about old-age insurance has not applied The income health insurance premiums are based is monthly unemployment allowance which is about 60 percent of laborer‟s remuneration However, German employment office calculates these kinds of insurance premiums on the basis of 80 percent of their covered earnings prior to unemployment Hence the amount of premiums which is paid monthly seems to be greater so the laborer‟s interest will be more secure 73 Ibid p.186 Page 48 2.2 Some recommendations to improve Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance German law has many particular and effective regulations governing practices of unemployment insurance as well as remedies for dealing with such practices However, in the scope of the thesis, the author will just focus on suggesting general resolutions that are in accordance with current Vietnamese situations 2.2.1 Clarifying and detailing the concept of unemployed person Up to present time, the concept of the unemployed has not yet stated reasonably in any legal documents The definition under Clause Article Social Insurance Law is considered to be inaccurate and not to be broad enough to set out not only the theoretical basis for unemployment insurance but also the foundation to govern the activities of applying this insurance Previously, Vietnamese Ministry of Labor – War Invalids and Social Affairs has announced the definition as expressed in previous chapter to be appropriate to ILO Conventions but there is no national specific provision detailing this definition to apply in practice In the author‟s personal opinion, in light of the concept in ILO Conventions, “unemployed person” could be defined as a person who is within labor age range, capable of working, currently not having a job to earn livings, actively seeking jobs and ready to work” It is argued that applying such a general concept of unemployed persons in the context of Vietnam is not easy Nevertheless, it should be expressed that there exist some exclusion for home-workers, pupils or students, foreign laborers and irregular laborers in this concept, but law makers can provide them in the coverage of unemployment insurance or qualifying conditions of unemployment insurance This concept can be put in Social Insurance Law to create legal basis in order to identify insured laborers in an appropriate way 2.2.2 Broadening the coverage of unemployment insurance While many foreign countries like Germany are applying unemployment insurance to all employees who have jobs to earn salaries, Vietnamese law limits the subjects of application in the group of employees “who enter into the labor or working contracts with the employers employing more than 10 laborers of indefinite term or a term of between full twelve months and thirty six months” As analyzed in the previous Page 49 section, there are many groups of employees excluded from unemployment insurance Although in the initial period of implementing unemployment insurance policy this provision seems to be reasonable, it should be amended with the trend toward expansion of coverage to more classes of workers so as to improve the level of employee protection Consulting German law on unemployment insurance and considering current Vietnamese situation, the author proposes that the subjects of application of unemployment insurance should be laborers who have labor or working contracts of indefinite term or a term of between fully 12 months to 36 months with all employers, except cadres and public employees as well as old-age pensioners or workcapacity loss beneficiaries who sign labor or working contracts with employers 2.2.3 Increasing the contribution from employers to unemployment insurance fund Corresponding with broadening the coverage of unemployment insurance, employers with enterprises, factories or other business units employing below 10 laborers should be required to participate in unemployment insurance plan As the number of medium and small business units is increasing in the context of market economy after crisis, establishing some methods to govern these employers is a necessary requirement Moreover, there should not be any discrimination between laborers working in big corporations and laborers employed in small enterprises Besides, the premiums of both the employers and employees requiring contributing to unemployment insurance fund should be calculated on their average income In other words, while employees contribute at the level of 1% of their salaries or wages, it should be suggested that employers must pay unemployment insurance premiums with 1% of their income The current method of calculation regulated in Vietnamese law is suitable on the theoretical basis that the amount of contribution provided by employers should base on the number of their employees because in some aspect, employers are responsible for laborers‟ unemployment events However, in the author‟s opinion, calculating employers‟ premiums on their income is appropriate to their solvency which could vary from day to day and suitable in the circumstances where any changes in the market or serious damages caused by economic crisis occur 2.2.4 Supplementing some regulations on unemployment benefit Page 50 As discussed in previous section, all unemployed persons receive unemployment allowance with similar level of 60% of their income prior to being unemployed However, the main goal of unemployment benefit is to recover laborer‟s loss of income and to support him to nurture his family Therefore, it is unreasonable to let all laborers receive allowance at the same level because living costs of single laborer and laborers with dependent persons is not similar So in the author‟s opinion, law makers should either stipulate another level of benefit for laborers with children and other dependant persons or create a new policy to assist this group of laborers Besides, as analyzed in the previous section, there should be a provision determining the relationship between unemployment benefits and job loss allowance or severance allowance Job loss allowance under Article 17 of Labor Code and severance allowance under Article 42 of Labor Code can be replaced by unemployment benefit in the future However, severance pay in the circumstances provided in Article 41 of Labor Code should be maintained as dismissal compensation Specifically, in these cases laborers become unemployed due to employers‟ errors, not the impact of objective circumstances Thus, the duration for unemployment benefits of laborers with this severance pay could start later than other laborers From the author‟s research, in regard to laborer who leaves his job without valid reasons or is disciplined in the form of dismissal, German law on unemployment insurance forces him to be disqualified from unemployment benefits up to 12 weeks However, Vietnamese law has not provided the treatments in this situation yet Some people thought that he needs to be excluded from enjoyment unemployment allowance Nevertheless, the author recommends that the duration of enjoying unemployment allowance or the amount of allowance should be reduced as a punitive method for this laborer and in order to prevent other laborers from actively leaving their jobs without good reasons or violating labor discipline seriously 2.2.5 Increasing and clarifying the State management for unemployment insurance practice Page 51 As analyzed in the previous section, there is a conflict between legal documents about the State agency which govern laborer‟s registration unemployment According to Law on the promulgation of legal documents 2008, in the circumstance where many documents stipulate an issue, Social Insurance Law, the legal documents having higher level of legal effect, must be applied Although laborer is now agreed to register his unemployment at job placement agency under Department of Labor- War Invalids and Social Affairs, there should be an amended law which officially solves this issue instead of prescribing in guiding legal documents Moreover, there is a factual problem that vocation training and job placement service have not been concerned yet These two utilizations of unemployment insurance fund play an important role in helping laborer to be equipped enough working skills and information to find a good job Consequently, in the author‟s personal opinion, job placement agencies should establish separate staffs who are expert at vocational training and job consultation in order to improve the quality of vocational training and job placement service Page 52 CONCLUSION Unemployment insurance is one of the most effective solutions to deal with high unemployment rate nowadays However, Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance has just gone into effect since 01/01/2009 so difficulties and obstacles which State agencies have to face in practical situations are unavoidable facts Consequently, a thorough review of the law on unemployment insurance of Vietnam as well as of Germany would have a reasonable significance for protecting legitimate interests of laborer and reducing unemployment rate in the context of economic crisis Initially, the thesis has analyzed the concept of “unemployed person” of ILO Conventions, compared unemployment insurance to social insurance and shown the role as well as the basic principles of unemployment insurance to set out the theoretical basis to establish unemployment insurance scheme Afterwards, the thesis researched Vietnamese regulations on unfair competition in advertising in order to discuss the lack of specification and rationality in the law determining unemployment insurance as well as the limited effectiveness on dealing with them Together with analyzing Vietnamese national provisions, the thesis drew comparisons between Vietnamese law and German law to figure out the similarities and differences In light of the limitations of Vietnamese law and the author‟s comparison to German law, the thesis proposed recommendations which are suitable for Vietnam‟s current circumstances in regards to clarify and detail the concept of the unemployed, broaden the coverage of unemployment insurance, increase the contribution from employers to unemployment insurance fund, supplement some regulations on unemployment benefit and besides, increase and clarify the State management for unemployment insurance practice Due to time and experience limitations this thesis certainly could not provide a flawless comprehensive analysis of this issue Hence, the author looks forward to receiving comments and advices from readers to assist the author to develop this research with the purpose contributing to improve Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance, Page 53 ensuring the labor market and protecting legitimate rights and interests of employees as well as employers Page 54 LIST OF REFERENCES I Legal documents Law No 35-L/CTN dated June 23, 1994 of the National Assembly amended by Law No 35/2002/QH10, Law No 74/2006/QH 11 and Law No 84/2007/QH 11 Law No.71/2006/QH11 dated July 12, 2006 of the National Assembly on Social Insurance Law No 17/2008/QH12 dated June 3, 2008 of the National Assembly on Promulgation of Legal Documents Decree No.135/2007/ND-CP dated August 16, 2007 of the Government on the sanctioning of administrative violations in the Social Insurance Domain Decree No.127/2008/ND-CP dated December 12, 2008 of the Government on detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Social Insurance Law concerning unemployment insurance Circular No 96/2009/TT-BTC dated May 20, 2009 of the Ministry of Finance on guiding financial regime concerning unemployment insurance fund Circular No 17/2009/TT-BLDTBXH dated May 25, 2009 of the Ministry of Labor- War Invalids and Social Affairs on amending some points of the Circular No 21/2003/TT-BLDTBXH on guiding some articles of the Government‟s Decree No.44/2003/ND-CP on labor contract Circular No 39/2009/TT-BLDTBXH of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs dated November 18, 2009 on guiding Article 12 of Decree No 39/2003/ND-CP on guiding the implementation of some articles of Labor Code on employment Circular No 32/2010/TT-BLDTBXH dated October 25, 2010 of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs on guiding a number of articles of the Government‟ Decree No 127/2008/ND-CP dated December 12, 2008 on detailing and Page 55 guiding a number of articles of the Social Insurance Law concerning unemployment insurance (replaced Circular No 04/2009/TT-BLDTBXH and Circular No 34/2009/TT-BLDTBXH) II Books and Reports English 10 Asian Development Bank (2003), Social Protection 11 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1997), Guidelines on employment- Supplement to the Programme for the World Census of Agriculture 2000, Rome 12 Brian A Garner (2004), Black’s Law Dictionary 8th edition, West Group Publishing, USA 13 International Labor Organization (2011), Global employment trends 2011, Geneva 14 International Labor Organization (1982), Report from the thirteenth international conference of labor statisticians, Geneva 15 International Labor Organization (2010), Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, Geneva 16 International Labor Organization (2010), Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Europe 2010, Geneva 17 International Labor Organization (1955), Unemployment insurance schemes, Geneva 18 International Labor Organization (2011), World Social Security Report 2010/11, Geneva Page 56 Vietnamese 19 TS Trần Hoàng Hải- TS Lê Thị Thúy Hương (2011), Pháp luật an sinh xã hộikinh nghiệm số nước Việt Nam, NXB Chính trị Quốc gia, Hà Nội 20 Trường Đại học Luật Hà Nội (2008), Giáo trình Luật an sinh xã hội, NXB Công an nhân dân, Hà Nội III Journals 21 Yasuhiro Kamimura (2011), “Employment Structure and Unemployment Insurance in East Asia: A Strategy to Establish Social Protection for All Workers”, Expert Meeting Materials from 15th ILO Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting, Japan, p.79-96 22 James M Klein (1987), “A comparative look at the unemployment insurance programs of the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States”, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Business Law, (Vol 9:2), p 181-209 23 Donald O Parsons, Torben Tranaes, Helene Bie Lilleør (2002), “Voluntary public unemployment insurance”, Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research Working Paper Series No 1010, Germany IV.Theses 24 Nguyễn Thị Mộng Trầm (2010), Pháp luật bảo hiểm thất nghiệp Việt NamVấn đề lý luận thực tiễn áp dụng, Luận văn Thạc sĩ Luật học, Tp Hồ Chí Minh V Websites 25 http://english.vietnamnet.vn 26 http://www.mhlw.go.jp 27 http://international.rub.de Page 57 28 http://thuvienphapluat.vn 29 http://www.adb.org 30 http://www.baohiemxahoi.gov.vn 31 http://www.cesinfo-group.de 32 http://www.fao.org 33 http://www.law.upenn.edu 34 http://www.ilo.org 35 http://www.vneconomy.vn Page 58 ... UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE IN COMPARISON WITH GERMAN LAW AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT 2.1 Vietnamese law on unemployment insurance in comparison with German law 2.1.1 The coverage of unemployment insurance. .. comparison between unemployment insurance and social insurance 16 1.3 Conclusion 18 CHAPTER VIETNAMESE LAW ON UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE IN COMPARISON WITH GERMAN LAW AND RECOMMENDATIONS... of vocational training support, vocational training duration and place of vocational training, and draft a decision on vocational training support for the laborer on unemployment allowance and