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Social
News Headlines 19/4
Regulation
requiring insurance for domestic help draws fire
Many people have
voiced objections to a newly-issued regulation requiring employers of
domestic helpers to pay labour insurance.
The newly-issued
Decree 27 guides the implementation of the Labour Law governing social and
medical insurance for those who work as domestic help.
The regulation,
which will take effect on May 25 stipulates that employers of domestic help
must sign labour contracts that stipulate the salaries, living conditions,
transport fees, any funding for vocational training and any other
compensation.
The regulation also
requires that domestic help have at least eight hours for rest, including six
consecutive resting hours, along with at least one full day off per week with
pay. Employers must also pay extra for overtime and work during holidays.
Domestic help would
have 12 days of annual leave if they work for one consecutive year for a
single employer.
Employers will also
be required to pay an additional sum of money equivalent to required social
and health insurance for their domestic help to facilitate them to buy
insurance on their own.
The regulation has
not attracted much attention from domestic workers, as they largely lack of
information.
Nguyen Thi Tham,
51, a domestic worker for a family in
Many domestic
workers say that they dare not ask for the required payments from their house
masters but hope for good treatment. Some even fear losing their jobs if they
ask for new benefits.
Meanwhile, the
regulation has attracted a lot of attention from employers, many of whom
oppose it.
A man named Tuan
from
“The regulation
requires us to allow our domestic help to take one full day off each week but
we can’t comply to that. We had to hire domestic help to take care of our
baby while we are at work. Compliance to the regulation means we would have
to work while our helper is off on the weekend, and that is impossible,” he
commented.
Some other people
have said that they would face difficulties if their domestic help regularly
took off one to two days per month to meet the requirements for annual leave.
They say they cannot stop working and stay at home to take care of their
children in order to work around the lives of their domestic helpers.
“I think that there
should not be a fixed policy on social and medical insurance for domestic
help, as they don’t care much about it and are more interested in their total
monthly income. This is an issue for negotiation between the two sides
involved. The regulation just sets up a sanction to prevent the abuse of
domestic workers," said one woman.
Parents in
Parents of young
children in
There is also a
large concern about bringing children to crowded public places. Many have
sent their children to the countryside.
There are currently
over 7,000 people infected with the disease nationwide and with over 100
deaths due to complications related to the disease since December 2013. The
concentration of infections is most prevalent in
The Ministry of
Education and Training have yet to take action regarding this issue.
Southern
provinces experiences heat wave and rain
Districts 4, 5, 7,
8, and Nha Be in HCMC experienced heavy rains on April 16. Other southern
provinces including Tay Ninh, Kien Giang, and An Giang also experienced heavy
rain.
The provinces had
100 mm of rainfall recorded, according to the Southern Hydro Meteorological
Center.
The majority of the
record resulted from scattered thunderstorms, said Nguyen Minh Giam, the
center’s deputy director.
The rain is due to
a cold front from the north travelling south to the hot humidity, said Giam.
The hot current with low pressure caused heavy rain and thunderstorm in some
regions.
The region will be
experiencing clear weather with a heat wave, according to the forecast.
Provinces are expected to experience temperatures of 37-39 degrees Celsius.
Western provinces will experience a 2 or 3 degree drop in temperature.
The rainy season is
expected to start at the end of April or the beginning of May. Coastal
provinces including Kien Giang, Cau Mau and southeastern provinces will
experience heavy rain.
This year’s rainy
season will commence later than last year. Average rainfall is also expected
to be lower.
HCMC to
build more kindergartens schools
The city will also
provide investment capital for 93 school building projects in 22 districts
with VND9.4 billion (US$446,500) for the first phase.
The city will
provide over VND 1 trillion to support private kindergartens in accordance to
government’s decision on supporting private preschools, said Director of the
Department of Finance in HCMC Dao Thi Huong Lan. However, it is a big sum.
Lan petitions
indirect supporting methods including providing stimulus packages, land
hiring exemptions, and free training for teaching staff in non-public kindergartens.
The Ministry of
Education and Training, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Interior
issued a decree to provide financial support to teachers in private
preschools. At present, preschools teachers are still not able to receive aid
due to unclear policy and registration.
84 winners
of technical skill contest honored
The 84 winners of
the technical skill contest for students in vocational schools were honored
on April 15.
The winners along
with 55 trainers received certificates of merit. This year’s contest received
219 applicants from vocational facilities in HCMC.
The first and
second-prize winners will be selected into a team for the national technical
skill contest in May 2014. Winners will qualify to participate in the 10th
ASEAN Technical Skill Contest in
Video
conference product is promising to revolutionize medical procedures
INext Company from
the
The pilot program
for the product was at People’s Hospital 115. It aided in four difficult
operations.
The use of the
product was during a hip-replacement operation for an 84-year-old woman.
Online operations have linked with hospitals in Ca Mau and Tien Giang
provinces. The product was checked by the Department of Science and
Technology in March.
Doctors in
provinces and districts can easily connect with their counterparts in big
hospitals who will guide during difficult operations, said Nguyen Chi Ngoc,
lecturer at the university and representative of the INext Company. This is
an effective training for doctors in small hospitals.
Older methods of
video conferences were used at Cho Ray in HCMC and Viet-Duc and Bach Mai
hospitals in
The implementation
of INEXT’s product will give doctors in distant clinics conferences with
leading medical experts in big cities, said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Phu, deputy head
of People Hospital 115. Many patients are unable to transfer hospitals
therefore this method will alleviate that issue.
The Ministry of
Health used to ask doctors in central hospitals to go to remote areas to help
their colleagues and transfer technologies. Overcrowding in the city
hospitals make it hard for doctors to leave. Dr. Phu believes the new product
will help increase treatment quality and reduce pressure on big hospitals.
The new product
will be used in People’s Hospital 115 in late 2014 and then it will be used
in hospitals in district 7, 12 and the
Illegal
logging destroys protected forest
The Song Lo
protected forest in
Blatant illegal
logging has been reported by residents of Lam Phu Commune, Lang Chanh
District. Large areas of chopped down trees riddle the path that leads to the
forest. The loggers have cut down trees in many forest areas such as Lan
Chay, Me Giang and Ong Vien.
After cutting wood
into suitable planks and blocks, the loggers use motorbikes to carry it out
under cover of darkness. They often work in large groups of four to six so
that they can intimidate rangers if they are caught.
The deeper into the
forest one goes, the more treeless areas can be found. The illegal loggers do
not bother with stealth. A large amount of lumber can be seen sitting around near
the centre of the
Nguyen Duy Vinh,
the head of the forest ranger unit in Lang Chanh District admitted that the
situation has gotten out of control in and around Na Dang Village. Since late
2013, they have increased the number of rangers there but, due to large area
and lack of personnel, the problem continues.
As of late 2013,
loggers were able to take away dozens of cubic metres of woods. Locals refuse
to act for fear of reprisals.
"We tried to
do our best. We've made reports to the Thanh Hoa Province People's Committee
so that they could direct the relevant agencies to deal with the
problem," Vinh said.
The chairman of
Lang Chanh District People's Committee also said they asked forest rangers
and managers of Song Lo forest increase their efforts to prevent illegal
logging. "We'll report to the higher-ups if becomes necessary," he
said.
Vietnam
indicts 3 Taiwanese for sending 229kg of heroin to Taiwan
Vietnamese police
have taken legal proceedings against three Taiwanese for their involvement in
a case in which 600 bricks of heroin weighing 229 kg, worth nearly US$400
million, were sent by air without detection from Ho Chi Minh City to Taiwan
in November last year.
These Taiwanese are
Sung Yuan Hsuan, 34, Pan Po Chung, 40, and Chen Kuo Shun, 37, who have been
charged with “illegally transporting drugs” in Vietnam.
They arrived in
On October 16, they
bought two loudspeakers from a company in Tan Phu District. Five days later,
they purchased 10 more loudspeakers.
The three men
packed the devices in 12 cardboard containers and kept them at their hotel.
After stuffing
heroin into these 12 loudspeakers, the Taiwanese trio commissioned Le Hoa
Trading and Forwarding Company Limited, located in District 1, to carry out
all procedures necessary for sending the 12 drug-containing loudspeakers to
Le Hoa then had
another freight forwarding company, KL Freight Forwarding Company, which is a
business partner of China Airlines, arrange with the carrier to send the
shipments to the territory.
On November 16, the
12 cardboard containers, weighing 438 kg in total, were transported to Tan
Son Nhat.
After e-customs
procedures for the shipments were completed, the cargos were put through a
scanning system of the airport’s security force for examination but the
system failed to detect the drugs.
The heroin,
weighing 229 kilograms, was seized by Taiwanese customs officers at
Each of the
containers contained 50 bricks of heroin that were coated with chocolate
paste in order to fool detection dogs, said Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation
Bureau.
The street value of
the drugs, allegedly originating in
Vietnamese police
and customs officials have launched their investigations into the case
following the seizure.
In late November
2013, Tan Son Nhat Security Services Company suspended four executives of a
team in charge of scanning and inspecting goods for failing to discover the
drugs.
On November 26,
2013, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc directed relevant ministries
strengthen measures to prevent drugs from being shipped to and from
He also asked the
Ministry of Public Security to coordinate with competent agencies, both at
home and abroad, to find out the origin of the drugs and identify those
responsible for sending them to
To date, Taiwanese
police have arrested ten people for investigation.
Newly-built
schools left unused in Thanh Hoa
A number of schools
in Nghi Xuan District, one of the poorest districts of
The schools were
built under the government’s Programme 135 and foreign-funded projects. Binh
Luong Commune, just some kilometres from the district centre, has three
schools which were put into use between 2004 and 2005 that now sit empty and
quiet.
Among those, the
kindergarten in
This kindergarten
has since been turned into a cultural house for the village. Meanwhile, the
two primary schools now serve as a warehouse and a guesthouse.
Some residents said
that at one point the primary school in
Dinh Tan Tuan,
Chairman of Binh Luong Commune People’s Committee, admitted the schools had
been left idle. He blamed the situation on a failure of the schools to enroll
enough students. After the closures, the schools were left to the communes
for management, but no official documentation of the handover was issued.
Le Nhan Tri, Deputy
Director of Nhu Xuan District’s Department of Education and Training, asserts
that the transfers were certified by a document on asset guarantees, but when
asked about this, he refused to produce it.
According to Tri,
some other local communes are in the same situation. He promised to provide
the reporter with a specific figure about the number of the unused schools,
but two days later he would not receive the reporter's call.
Ministry
explains controversial education package
Pham Ngoc Phuong, a
spokesman for the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), explained how
over VND34 trillion (USD1.61 billion) will be spent on education reform.
According to
Phuong, they will need about VND105 billion to creating new content for
textbooks, curriculum and teaching materials; VND910 billion will be spent on
pilot teaching programmes at 600 primary, secondary and high schools; the
implementation of the nationwide programme, in cluding 30,000 schools, will
cost about VND8 trillion.
VND20 trillion will
be spent on buying additional equipment, replacing 50% of the current
equipment, and printing textbooks. The rest will be used on the application
of information technology to teaching methods and exams.
The MoET said the
largest chunk of the budget, VND20 trillion for equipment, will be given
directly by the Ministry of Finance to localities. Leaders of the MoET also
said that, even without the reform plan, they would still need funds for
equipment upgrades.
At the April 15
press conference with the MoET, a representative from the media pointed out
that
A member of drafting
committee for textbooks and curriculum, Do Ngoc Thong, said, "We are not
hiding anything. This number is just an estimate. The entire cost of the
programme must go through various reviews by the Ministry of Finance and
National Assembly's inspectorates, so it's difficult to give exact numbers at
this time."
Thong said they
will still make use of the equipment that has already been acquired and that
the main focus of the plan is on revamping learning and teaching methods. The
MoET is collecting opinions and aims to complete their plan by April 25 in
order to submit it for discussion at the NA meeting in May.
Supermarket
staff humiliate schoolgirl, may face prosecution
Police in the
central highlands
The incident
occurred on the afternoon of April 10, when, according to the student, she
put her money in her bag, which was put at the supermarket cabinet. The girl
then took two books worth VND10,000 (USD0.47) each, intending to pay for them
after getting the money from her bag.
However, she was
stopped by security when she went to the first floor. Store security tied her
to the stairs, hung a sign around her neck saying “I’m a thief," took
her photo and uploaded it to Facebook. When her friend called one of the
girl's relatives for help, the relative was asked to pay a fine of VND200,000
(USD9.47) for her to be released.
“We decided to pay
the fine because we think that our child was wrong to some extent and we
don’t want to cause any more trouble,” her parents said.
Nguyen Thi Nga, the
owner of the supermarket, said she was not at the supermarket when the
incident occurred and it was never reported to her.
Nga added that the
security guard responsible claimed that he did it just for fun. After the
public outcry following the incident, the security guard resigned.
General Dinh Binh,
head of police in Chu Se District said they are investigating the incident.
RMIT plans
new facility in Hanoi
The new facility in
the capital city was unveiled by professor Gael McDonald, new president and
general director of RMIT Vietnam, at a function in HCMC yesterday. However,
she did not unveil the investment capital needed for this new campus as this
depended on the site RMIT could find.
McDonald said RMIT
had invested significantly in
RMIT Vietnam
currently has 6,000 students, including some 4,500 students at its Saigon
South campus in HCMC’s District 7. The Australian-owned university looks to
bring the total number to 15,000 by 2020.
To achieve this
goal, RMIT Vietnam will focus on enhancing teaching quality and investing in
new facilities in the next five years. In addition, it will intensify
cooperation with enterprises in training and recruiting graduates.
Late last year, the
university inaugurated Academic Building 2 at its Saigon South campus in
order to double its teaching space in HCMC. The facility, equipped with
modern teaching and learning technology, allows for a range of flexible
learning spaces.
With its 14,400
square meters of space across six levels, the new building can house up to
1,100 students at a time.
RMIT Vietnam is a
100% Australian-invested university established in
Source:
Dantri/SGGP/VNA/Tuoitre/VOV
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Thứ Sáu, 18 tháng 4, 2014
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