Consultant, Social Security, Inspection

Lao PDR 8th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) for 2016-2020 sets as a priority inclusive economic growth, benefiting all members of society under the overall objective of graduating from least developed country status. Inclusiveness must be an integral part of growth to reduce the inequality gap and further reduce poverty. At the same time, continued economic growth means that the government’s fiscal capacity is expected to improve over the medium to long-term, enabling a gradual creation and expansion of social protection for the most vulnerable groups.

Health care in Lao PDR is characterized by low levels of spending compared to international benchmarks, as well as a low share of spending being borne by government. The public health care system is relatively under-funded and out-of-pocket expenditure on health remain high. For many years, mechanisms to provide social health protection were fragmented and provided through five different schemes with limited coverage:  compulsory social health insurance schemes for civil servants (NSSF-SASS) and formal-sector employees (NSSF-SSO), government-run community-based voluntary social health insurance (CBHI) schemes, subsidized health equity funds (HEFs) providing free access to care for the poor, and the free Maternal and Child Health Care (Free MNCH).

The Government of Lao PDR (GoL) has demonstrated strong commitment to address the issue of fragmentation of social health protection schemes. In compliance with the Prime Minister Decree 470, and the Law on National Health Insurance, No. 60/NA promulgated on 25 January 2019, the National Health Insurance scheme - integrating the different Social Health Protection schemes – is now implemented nationwide, under the oversight of the National Health Insurance Bureau, MoH. In this new NHI model, the national Social Security Fund (NSSF) keeps the mandate of registering formal economy workers and their dependants, and to collect contributions accordingly.

Ensuring compliance of employers and workers with registration to the NSSF is of utmost importance to ensure adequate social (health) protection coverage of the Lao population. There is expectation from the Ministry of Health that promoting compliance with NSSF registration requirements by formal employment business entities will gradually decrease the financial burden of fully subsidizing NHI coverage of workers in the informal economy and their dependents. An increase in social security coverage through improved inspection and enforcement is also in the strong interest of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and worker organisations to ensure that Lao PDR’s workforce is better protected against health and other risks that can affect their income and work capacity. Indeed, NSSF also provides income support benefits to mitigate the risk of unemployment, loss of work capacity, maternity, workplace accidents and diseases, old age, and death of a family member.

Compliance has been an area of concerns among the ASEAN Member States when it comes to extending social security coverage. The factors that contribute towards the low level of compliance of social security laws need to be identified. In addition, weaknesses in the capacity of the social security inspection system and its design need to be studied as often inspections are a recently established function.

Indeed, while actual compliance is first and foremost driven by positive incentives (perceived value of social security, Government subsidies etc.), the inspection function also has an important role to play to control and ensure that employers and employees comply with their legal obligations. Labour inspection is a public function of labour administration that ensures the application of labour legislation in the workplace. Its main role is to ensure that a country’s labour law is being applied through enforcement and the provision of technical information and advice to employers and workers, as indicated in Convention 81.  In the world of work, labour inspection is an important instrument of state presence and intervention to design, stimulate, and contribute to the development of a culture of prevention covering all aspects potentially under its purview. The range of regulatory oversight of labour inspection is potentially huge and varies significantly from one country to another, according to national objectives and legislation. The range of topics that labour inspections usually include are occupational safety and health, compensation (payment of wages, overtime, paid leave), working hours, fundamental labour rights, accident investigation and work injury compensation, social dialogue and industrial relations, enrolment with social security and payment of contributions. In addition to more broad Labour Inspections, Social Security Inspection plays an important role in ensuring compliance with Social Security laws.

In Lao PDR, the Social Security Law 2018 specifies in a synthetic way the contents and forms of social security inspections. Inspections are meant to cover the following:
- The implementation of the Law on Social Security (external inspection);
- The performance of civil servants and social security officers (internal inspection);
- The development and implementation plans on social security (internal inspection).

Rights and responsibilities of inspection targets are specified by Laws and national inspection plans, along with measures to ensure education and to apply disciplinary sanctions and fines, where necessary. A draft Ministerial Decree on NSSO inspections further details the assignments, qualifications, right, duties and obligations of inspectors; type and methods of inspections as well as the obligations and responsibilities of inspected entities.
Through the on-going restructuring of the NSSO, the Ministry of Labour is reshaping the organization of the Inspection Functions, with the creation of a Legislation Division and an Internal Inspection Division under NSSO. Based on draft terms of reference, the Legislation Division is in charge of developing the legislative and regulatory framework on social security, but also to monitor and supervise the implementation, and inspect the participation of labour units in the social security scheme. It plays a role of mediator, being responsible for the social security dispute resolution. As its name clearly indicates the Internal Inspection Division is meant to carry out necessary inspections tasks in relation with the internal management and implementation of social security functions.
 In addition, there is one Labour Inspection Division under MoLSW, which also enquires about labour units’ compliance with social security, although to a limited extent . Labour inspectors of the MoLSW would check whether a business entity is registered with the Social Security Office but not whether payments are done regularly for all employees and workers who should be covered.

The objective of the assignment is to provide technical support to the NSSF, placed under the Lao Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, to strengthen the social security inspection function, so to contribute to better compliance with legal provisions on social security and with the ultimate objective to protect workers’ rights with respect to their social security entitlements.

The international consultant is expected to carry-on the following tasks:

i. Describe main issues affecting compliance with NSSF requirements, upon consultation with and support to dialogue among key stakeholders through a multi-stakeholder working group/committee to encourage a systemic reflection on compliance

ii. Provide an overview of the organization of the Labour and Social security inspection roles and functions in Lao PDR at each administrative level in order to assess possible gaps and identify opportunities to strengthen coherence, coordination and effectiveness of inspections

iii. Identify options on how inspections could be implemented, focusing on the following: 

- Responsibility for conducting inspection and composition of inspection teams, with possible options including, but not being limited to the following: labour inspectors only, Social security inspectors only, combination of both, multi-stakeholder task force, others.
- Criteria for selecting enterprises that will be subject to inspection.

iv. Provide technical support to the NSSF to develop Social security Inspection guidelines, in compliance with the existing legal framework. The guidelines will cover but will not be limited to the following areas:
- Principles guiding labour/ social security inspection
- Obligations and Powers of social security inspectors
- Detailed scope of social security inspections
- Methods and standards of inspection
- Setting of social security inspection targets
- Setting of performance measurement indicators for social security inspectors
- How to conduct inspections (preparation, conduct, report, follow-up)
- Classification of offenses and enforcement measures
- Collaboration with Employers and Workers
- Collaboration with other line ministries and relevant departments
- Coordination across authorities, and bodies

v. Provide technical support to the NSSF to develop Internal Inspection guidelines and provide recommendations to strengthen internal inspections.

vi. Provide comprehensive recommendations to strengthen Social security Inspections and enforcement of the Social Security Law, particularly from weaknesses identified in the Laws of Lao PDR, the capacity of the social security inspection system and its design (including but not limited to mandate of the Inspectors, training and staffing and coordination across authorities). This includes the documentation of principles and good practices on Social security Inspections.

vii. Provide recommendations to strengthen compliance with NSSF registration and payment requirements. Recommendations on durable and efficient options will be formulated within a broader systemic approach, balancing roles of inspection with other mechanisms (such as tax payments and business registration) to incentivize compliance, building checks into the NSSF system itself and leveraging the regulatory environment.

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, and particularly with the NSSF. The consultant is expected to adopt a methodology of work that encourages active participation, consulting with relevant stakeholders beyond the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.

The consultant will take into consideration ILO Labour inspection convention 1947 (No 81) and accompanying Recommendations 81, Lao PDR’s legal framework, existing guidelines and good practices from other countries.

The timeline is only indicative and will be adjusted based on the evolution of Covid-19, and when gathering and travel restrictions are progressively lifted.

The international consultant will be supported by the National Project Coordinator of the ILO-LuxDev Luxembourg Social Health Protection project, who will assist with the screening and compilation of relevant documents and publications, translation and interpretation work and the coordination of meetings with stakeholders (in-person or virtual, depending on how the Covid19 situation develops.

The work is expected to be conducted in 25 working days.

The consultant is required to have the following qualifications:
- University level academic qualifications in social science, social policy, social protection, public administration, international development or other relevant fields
- At least 10 years of demonstrated experiences of relevant work on social security administration, preferably as a part of a social security institution
- Practical experience and knowledge of working on Labour and/or social security inspection
- Ability to adapt to different environment and to propose alternative options and recommendations to suit a specific country context.
- Experience in South East Asia is an added advantage
- Good report writing and communication skills
- Good knowledge of the Lao political, economic and social context is an asset
- Ability to produce high quality deliverables in a timely manner, in English language
- Work in close consultation with the project team and the ILO country office

The consultant must be aware that the ILO accepts no liability in the event of death, injury, or illness  .
The consultant must attest that he/she is adequately covered by insurance for these risks.
In no circumstances shall the consultant be covered by any ILO insurance. It is the consultant’s own responsibility to take out, at their own expense, any personal insurance policies that are considered necessary, including a civil liability insurance policy.

Application requirement

Interested candidates are requested to apply by sending an up-to-date CV as well as daily consultancy fees.
Interested candidates are requested to send their applications no later than 10th June 2020 to the ILO-Lux National Project