Owed wages for 3 years despite quitting his job
In the petition sent to Lao Dong Newspaper, the collective of employees at Quang Nam Medical College General Hospital (Quang Nam Medical College Hospital) said that 22 employees working here have been owed wages and allowances for more than 9 months (from April 2022 to mid-January 2023) that have not been paid. In total, it is more than 830 million VND.
Ms. Nga (name changed), working at Quang Nam Trade Union Hospital, said that all of her living expenses depend on her salary of nearly 4 million VND/month, so when her salary debt is long, she has to borrow money from her family and relatives to make ends meet, and her life is very difficult.
Knowing that the hospital was facing difficulties, she shared and still went to work in the hope of getting maternity insurance.
"But about a week before my birthday, I learned that the hospital did not pay health insurance. I requested but the hospital did not pay additional fees, the closer the birth date was. In the end, I had to borrow to pay the hospital fees of more than 8 million VND without being paid by health insurance" - Ms. Nga said.
Mr. Phan Tan Tien, former lecturer and staff of the Department of Medicine and Pharmacy of Quang Nam Medical Center, added that the unpaid wages had not been paid, but on January 15, 2023, the hospital suddenly decided to temporarily suspend the work contracts with 21 employees, causing many people to fall into unemployment, and face countless difficulties in life, because most of them were married and raising young children.
Talking to the Lao Dong newspaper, Mr. Bui Long An, Principal of Quang Nam College of Health confirmed, the total debt of the hospital until the time of suspending operations up to more than 10 billion dong. In particular, the salary debt of the employee working at the hospital has quit the amount of VND 830 million, debt of drugs and medical supplies from the suppliers of more than VND 9.2 billion.
The governing body has a series of violations
According to the Lao Dong newspaper, the employee who has a salary debt at the hospital has repeatedly sent an application to the Chairman of Quang Nam People's Committee. Through consideration, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee transferred the above application to the Principal of Quang Nam Health College to check and respond to the contents of the employee's application in accordance with the law; report the results to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. However, up to now, the issue of wage debt has not been solved.
The workers said that they had filed a lawsuit with the People's Court of Tam Ky City and sued the employer (Mr. Huynh Tan Tuan - former Director of Quang Nam General Hospital). However, when contacted, the school did not confirm the debt (according to the Court's request), causing the lawsuit to stall.
Mr. Bui Long An - Principal of the school said that the unpaid salary incident occurred during the previous principal's term.
Regarding this case, the Investigation Police Agency of Quang Nam Provincial Police has prosecuted the case at Quang Nam Medical Center, for many years of violations, causing a deficit of tens of billions of VND in the State budget.
According to the conclusion of the Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee's Inspection Committee, in the 2 terms of 2015 - 2020, 2020 - 2025, Quang Nam Medical Center used more than 23 billion VND in funding than the number of training admissions.
General Hospital (under Quang Nam Medical University) has implemented the cost of health insurance examination and treatment exceeding the ceiling, exceeding the total (phase 2016 - 2020) of more than 12.1 billion VND; owes 9.4 billion VND for purchasing medical examination and treatment drugs from suppliers (phase 2016 - 2020), and owes employees more than 800 million VND for a long time.
The authorities concluded that Quang Nam Medical Center was slow to overcome the consequences, and so far could not recover most of the violation.
"Although the salary debt is the consequence of the previous term, our viewpoint still tries to solve the salary debt for the employee. However, because the hospital has seals and specific financial spending regulations, but now closed. So even if the school has money, it is impossible to pay salary debt.
Regarding the failure to confirm the debt for employees in the lawsuit file, the leaders of Quang Nam Trade Union admitted that there was a shortage of human resources due to the lack of human resources. This is a complicated case, the old financial officer of the hospital has now quit his job, leading to delays in confirmation.
