VietNamNet Bridge – The maximum salary for the leaders of state-owned groups will be VND54 million per month starting next year, and if their firms do not make a profit their monthly salaries will be an average of VND10 million.

An official from the Labour and Salary Department, under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that under new regulations, salaries of leaders of state-owned enterprises will be more strictly supervised.

The base salary for the chairman of a state-owned group will be VND36 million per month and general director’s level will make VND35 million per month.

In cases in which a state-owned group makes high profits and fulfills tax duties as well as ensuring capital safety, the maximum salary for group chairmen and general directors will be VND54 million and VND52.4 million respectively.

On the other hand, if their group takes losses, the salaries for the chairman would be VND10.12-10.46 million per moth and VND9.775-10.12 million per month for general directors.

In the period between 2011 and 2012, up to 19 leaders of state-owned groups had an annual income of over VND1 billion per year. Some even made incomes as high as VND3.2 million per year. These numbers included bonuses and other benefits. Nonetheless, their salary announced on paper remains in line with regulations.

According to one news source, the salary of the chairman and general director of Vietnam Airlines is only VND58 million per month, but their total income reported to the tax agencies was VND105 million in 2011 and VND95 million in 2012.

An official from the Labour and Salary Department said that the violation in the regulation of salary distribution is a thorny problem. Under the regulations, the salary fund for management positions and labourers must be separated, but a number of enterprises mixed them up.  As a result, they used labourers’ salaries to pay for the leaders.

Meanwhile, the salary structures at these companies remains relatively non-transparent.

"Payment structure should have the input of workers, but in fact, labourers do not dare to disagreement with the illegal high salaries of their leaders. The trade union organisations only sign off on payrolls, and labourers do not know about the violations. It is only when the problem has been detected by auditors and inspectors that they become aware,” the official emphasised.

The new regulations will ban the use of labourers’ salaries to pay leaders. Another important stipulation will be that leaders will have to make annual public reports of the salaries and bonuses of every member of staff made available online.

DTriNews/VNN