On March 26 2013, VNU-UEB collaborated with the Department of Social Affairs, the Central Economic Committee to organize a scientific conference on “Policy and mechanism of salary payment to officials and public servants, employee in education and training.”
Attending to the conference were Dr. Le Hong Huyen - Head of Department of Social Affairs, the Central Economic Committee, leaders of the Departments under the Committee; representatives of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs; representatives of VNU’s departments; leaders of universities in Hanoi such as National Economics University, Vietnam University of Commerce, Foreign Trade University...
On behalf of VNU-UEB, there were Rector Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son, Vice-Rector Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Anh Tai, and leaders of the faculties and offices under the university. The workshop also attracted the attention and participation of many experts in the relevant field.
Talking about salaries at the conference, most participants agreed that the current policy on paying for education in general and higher education in particular is still insufficient. In particular, the low minimum wage leads to the situation that the staff and faculty could not afford their livings; the barriers in mechanism create difficulties for training institutions to increase income for staff and faculty.
Wage reform in education segment, especially in higher education is very difficult due to the limited resources, the complexity of the administration in titles and criteria classification, the apparatus of governance and macro-economic situation, the relationship between inflation and wages, etc. However, this is a very urgent and necessary task.
Many comments were made at the workshop
Making recommendations for salary reform issues, the attendants said that when the payment of wages still depends on the mechanisms and policies, one of the important issues to raise income is to diversify revenue sources for training institutions. Among those, the source of revenue from the State is still important, but it should be peculiar to each training institution, especially to the key ones or basic sciences.
The opinion also emphasizes on the transparency in creating revenues and increasing autonomy for institutions in the search for other sources to pay extra income.
The problem of revenue allocation, income payment also attracted the delegates’ concern. Accordingly, the income should be paid according to three basic criteria: position, capacity and occupation performance. The more important thing is to increase autonomy for universities. The State may give the frame (minimum frame or base frame) so that the universities and colleges can be more active in income payment.
One of the important issues mentioned in the workshop is managerial issues. Many people said that there should be a unified body to manage the salary problem to avoid overlapping, inconsistent provisions between the parties.
In addition, participants also highlighted a number of recommendations such as narrowing the wage scales, consideration for particular branches ..., special recommendations on support for young faculty members and female lecturer.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son - Rector of VNU-UEB share the Plan for payment 3P (Position - Power - Performance) that the university is implementing
The conference has recognized the opinions and ideas on wage-related issues such as: the minimum wage; system of salary scale; regime; payment mechanism; resources to implementation; wages and income management policy... to advise The Politburo on wages policy in general and salaries for officials, civil servants and employees, workers in the field of education and training in particular.