When an employee quits his job, the company needs to close the social insurance book so that the employee can carry out procedures for receiving unemployment benefits.

This article was consulted by Lawyer Nguyen Quang Trung

Legal grounds:

• Labor Code 2019;
• Social Insurance Law 2014;
• Decree No. 28/2015/ND-CP;
• Decree No. 12/2022/ND-CP.

We receive the following questions:

It’s been 2 months since I quit my job at the company and I’ve contacted the company several times to get my social insurance book, but I still haven’t received it in order for I can complete the procedures for unemployment benefits. So if the company doesn’t close the book, will the company be fined?

When terminating the labor contract, both the enterprise and the employee must fulfill their obligations to each other, including payment of salary arrears and advances, as well as closing social insurance books and handing over documents.

Pursuant to Clause 3, Article 48 of the 2019 Labor Code as follows:

Article 48. Responsibilities when terminating the labor contract

3. The employer has the following responsibilities:

1. Complete the procedure to confirm the time of social insurance and unemployment insurance payment and return it along with the original documents if the employer has kept the employee’s;
2. Provide copies of documents related to the employee’s work history if the employee requests. The cost of copying and sending documents is paid by the employer.

Pursuant to Clause 5, Article 21 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance as follows:

Article 21. Responsibilities of the employer

5. Coordinate with the social insurance agency to return social insurance books to employees, confirm the social insurance payment period when the employee terminates the labor contract, work contract or quits the job according to the law.

According to the above regulations, when an employee quits his job, the company must do the following:

• Closing social insurance books and handing them over to employees;
• Return to the employee the kept documents (if any);
• Provide documents related to the employee’s work history if requested.

In addition, based on Article 16 of Decree No. 28/2015/ND-CP, the employee’s application for unemployment benefits is accompanied by a social insurance book with confirmation of the period of compulsory insurance payment. So if the company does not close social insurance books for employees, it will affect the employee’s unemployment benefits.

Therefore, to protect the legitimate rights of employees, if the company does not close the social insurance books for employees when they quit their jobs, they will be subject to administrative sanctions according to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 39 of Decree. Decree No. 12/2022/ND-CP as follows:

Article 39. Violations of regulations on payment of compulsory social insurance and unemployment insurance

3. Fine from 1,000,000 VND to 3,000,000 VND for violation for each employee but not exceeding 75,000,000 VND for employers who fail to carry out procedures to confirm payment of unemployment insurance for employees so that employees can complete their unemployment insurance dossiers according to regulations.

Note:

• The above fine is applicable to individual employers.
• If the employer is an organization that violates the regulation of closing social insurance books and handing them over to employees, the fine is twice the level mentioned above. Specifically, fines range from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 VND for each violated employee, but the maximum is 150,000,000 VND.