Decree 14/2012/ND-CP amending Article 7 of Decree 204/2004/ND-CP of December 14, 2004 on the salary regime for cadres, civil servants, public employees and the armed forces, and Section I of the leadership position allowance table issued with Decree 204/2004/ND-CP

Decree 14/2012/ND-CP, issued by the Government on 7 March 2012, amends Article 7 of Decree 204/2004/ND-CP on the salary regime for cadres, civil servants, public employees, and the armed forces, and revises part of Section I of the leadership position-allowance table attached to Decree 204/2004. Its provisions affect public-sector pay structure, specifically the rules for moving up a salary step and the position-allowance coefficients used in computing salary, so they feed pay and, indirectly, pension calculations for affected public-sector staff. Article 1 amends point b, clause 2 of Article 7 of Decree 204/2004. Under the new wording, a cadre, civil servant, or public employee who has received an official retirement notice as required by the State, has completed assigned duties, has not yet been placed on the final salary step within their rank or title, and has not met the time-in-step condition for a regular step increase at the time of the retirement notice, is granted one salary step up 12 months ahead of the normal schedule set in points a and b of clause 1 of that article. This early step increase raises the salary coefficient used to compute monthly pay and the pension base for those near retirement. Article 2 revises the leadership position-allowance table attached to Decree 204/2004. It sets the leadership position-allowance coefficient for the Chairperson of a provincial or centrally-run city People's Committee (excluding Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) at 1.30. It also amends clause 10 of Section I so that leadership titles from Director General downward within the General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement carry a position-allowance coefficient ranging from 0.15 to 1.0, with the Ministry of Justice to specify details after agreement with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. These coefficients are multipliers applied to the base salary in determining position allowances. Article 3 sets effective dates: the decree takes effect on 1 May 2012, while the position-allowance arrangements in Article 2 are counted as payable from 1 January 2011. Article 4 assigns implementation responsibility to ministers, heads of ministerial-level and government agencies, and chairpersons of provincial and centrally-run city People's Committees. For HAPRI calculation purposes, the relevant parameters are the 12-month early salary-step increase for staff with a retirement notice and the revised leadership position-allowance coefficients.