Fear of Being Fired When Requesting Two Months of Unpaid Leave

“1. Employees are entitled to paid leave in the following cases:

a) Getting married: three days off;

b) Child getting married: one day off;

c) Biological father, biological mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, or husband’s father, husband’s mother dies; wife or husband dies; child dies: three days off.

2. Employees are entitled to one day of unpaid leave and must notify the employer when a paternal grandfather, paternal grandmother, maternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, brother, or sister dies; father or mother gets married; brother or sister gets married.

3. Apart from the provisions in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, employees may negotiate with their employer to take unpaid leave.”

Thus, under the law, apart from the above leave days, if you want unpaid leave, you can negotiate with your employer. If a replacement can be arranged, you will be granted unpaid personal leave.

Regarding social insurance contributions during unpaid personal leave, Clause 4, Article 42 of Decision 595/QD-BHXH dated April 14, 2017, stipulates: “Employees who do not work and do not receive wages for 14 working days or more in a month shall not be required to pay social insurance for that month. This period is not counted for social insurance benefits.”

Therefore, if you apply for two months of unpaid leave, you will not be required to pay social insurance and this period will not be counted towards the time for social insurance benefits.

Lawyer, Master Pham Thanh Binh

Bao Ngoc Law Firm, Hanoi

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