Decree 204/2004/ND-CP on the salary regime for cadres, civil servants, public employees and the armed forces

Decree 204/2004/ND-CP (14 December 2004) sets the salary regime for cadres, civil servants, public employees, and the armed forces. It establishes the common minimum salary, the salary scales and tables, the system of salary allowances, the rules for salary-grade advancement, the methods of salary payment, the funding sources, and the management of salary and income. It covers staff in State agencies and State public-service units; full-time cadres and civil servants of communes, wards, and townships; and officers, professional servicemen, non-commissioned officers, soldiers, and workers in units of the people's army and people's police. Covered persons include State leadership titles and the professional titles of the Court and Procuracy sectors set out in Resolution 730/2004/NQ-UBTVQH11; elected officials holding fixed-term posts in provincial, district, and equivalent People's Committees; civil servants and probationary civil servants under Decrees 117/2003/ND-CP and 115/2003/ND-CP; public employees under Decree 116/2003/ND-CP; State-payroll staff seconded to associations, non-governmental organizations, projects, and international bodies based in Vietnam; commune-level cadres and civil servants under Decree 121/2003/ND-CP; cipher staff; and armed-forces personnel. The core principles for grading salary and leadership-position allowances are that each person is graded according to the rank or professional title to which they are appointed. Elected cadres who fall under professional grading receive the salary of the administrative civil-service rank and grade plus the leadership-position allowance of their elected title. A person holding several leadership titles is graded by, or receives the allowance of, the highest title; concurrently heading another agency that has its own dedicated head position adds a concurrent-duty allowance. Armed-forces and cipher staff are graded by the salary table designated for them. Conversion from the old salary system to the new one must accompany a review of payrolls and of position-title standards, and any earlier grading that did not follow the rules is re-graded correctly. Salary payment must be tied to the results of duties performed and to the agency's funding source, whether from the State budget or from lawful revenues used to pay salaries. When a person changes work, salary and position allowances are re-graded to fit the new duties. A person who leaves a leadership post (except through dismissal, removal, or non-reappointment) for other work or a lower-paid leadership post keeps the old position salary or allowance for 6 months before re-grading. Officials rotated to a lower-paid leadership post keep their former position salary or allowance, and those transferring from the armed forces, cipher service, or State companies into State agencies are re-graded to the new duties, with any higher former salary preserved as a difference where the law allows.