Overtime and Additional Working Hours: How to Make Them Reasonable

The Labor Code sets forth regulations on working hours and rest periods as follows:

- Regular working hours shall not exceed 08 hours per day and 48 hours per week.

Employers are entitled to prescribe work by the hour, day, or week; in the case of weekly work, regular working hours shall not exceed 10 hours per day and 48 hours per week.

The State encourages employers to implement a 40-hour workweek.- For employees performing particularly arduous, hazardous, or dangerous work (as per the List issued by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs), working hours shall not exceed 06 hours per day.- Employees working shifts are entitled to a minimum of 12 hours of rest before transitioning to another shift.- For nighttime work, working hours are from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with a mandatory rest period of at least 45 minutes, counted as working hours.

In cases of overtime work, employers are allowed to employ workers for overtime when:

- They have the agreement of the employees.- The overtime hours of employees do not exceed 50% of the normal working hours per day.- If overtime is performed on holidays, Tet, and weekly rest days, it must not exceed 12 hours per day.- In the case of weekly work, the total regular working hours and overtime hours must not exceed 12 hours per day; 30 hours per month and a total of 200 hours per year.

Except for special cases prescribed by the Government of Vietnam, overtime shall not exceed 300 hours per year.

Decree 45/2013/ND-CP provides guidance on organizing overtime from over 200 hours to 300 hours per year applicable to the following jobs:

- Production and export processing of textile, garment, footwear products; processing of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products;- Production and supply of electricity, telecommunications, oil refining; water supply and drainage;- Other cases requiring urgent, unpostponable work resolution.

When organizing overtime, employers must notify in writing the specialized agency assisting the People’s Committee of the province or central-affiliated city in state management of labor at the local level.

It should be noted that after each continuous overtime period, employers must arrange compensatory rest for the period that employees did not rest. Specifically:

- After each maximum continuous overtime period of 07 days in a month, employers must arrange compensatory rest for the time that employees did not rest;- If compensatory rest cannot be arranged for the full time, employers must pay overtime wages.

In addition, employers have the right to request employees to work overtime on any day, and employees are not permitted to refuse in the following cases:

- Execution of orders for mobilization or requisition to ensure national defense and security tasks in emergency situations concerning national defense and security as prescribed by law;- Perform tasks to protect human life, and property of agencies, organizations, and individuals in prevention and mitigation of consequences of natural disasters, fires, epidemics, and catastrophes.

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