What is the legal working age in 2024? Can persons under 18 years of age conclude employment contracts in Vietnam?
What is the legal working age in Vietnam in 2024?
According to Clause 1, Article 3 of the 2019 Labor Code, regulations on employees and legal working age are as follows:
Definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms below shall be construed as follows:
1. “employee” means a person who works for an employer under an agreement, is paid, managed and supervised by the employer.
The legal working age is 15, except for the cases specified in Section 1 Chapter XI of this Labor Code.
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Thus, currently the legal working age is 15 years old.
However, according to Article 143 of the 2019 Labor Code, Article 8 of Circular 09/2020/TT-BLDTBXH, light works where persons from 13 to under 15 years of age may be employed are:
- Art performers.
- Athletes.
- Software programming.
- Traditional crafts: pottery dot painting; mussel shell sawing; bamboo paper making; leaf hat making; hat dot painting; sleeping mat weaving; drum making; brocade weaving; brocade embroidering; rice noodle making; vermicelli making; bean sprout making; rice paper making; silk weaving; lotus silk winding; lacquer painting, incense making, votive paper making (excluding stages where toxic chemicals such as paint made from wax tree, bleach, colorants, fragrance additives, etc. are used).
- Handicrafts: lace weaving; decorative woodworking; horn comb making; folk painting (Dong Ho painting, Hang Trong painting, etc.); making toy figurines from rice powder; woodcut painting, attaching additional layers to silk painting; collecting mollusk shells for paintings; painting polishing; bead bracelet making, handcrafted jewelry polishing; puppet making; greeting card making, making paper decorations for greeting cards; making painting frames, paper models, paper boxes and paper bags.
- Weaving and making household articles and handmade articles using natural ingredients such as plants of the Calameae tribe, bamboo, coconut tree, banana plant, common water hyacinth, jute, sedge, forked ferns, etc.
- Cured pork wrapping, candy wrapping and cake wrapping (excluding use of wrapping equipment).
- Silkworm raising.
- Removing weeds from vegetable gardens; collecting seasonal vegetables and fruit.
- Herding livestock in farms.
- Assisting with untangling fishnets, weaving fishnets and drying aquatic products.
- Cutting threads, sewing buttons, sewing button holes and packing hand-woven products into boxes.
In addition, current law also allows people under 13 years old to perform arts and sports, which must not affect their physical, intelligence and personality development and require approval from Departments of Labor - War Invalids and Social Affairs..
Can persons under 18 years of age conclude employment contracts in Vietnam? What is the legal working age? (Image from the Internet)
Can persons under 18 years of age conclude employment contracts in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Clause 4, Article 18 of the 2019 Labor Code, it is stipulated that the person entering into the labor contract on the employee's side is a person in one of the following cases:
Competence to conclude employment contracts
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4. The person who concludes the employment contract on the employee’s side shall be:
a) The employee himself/herself if he/she is 18 or older;
b) The employee aged 15 to under 18 with a written consensus by his/her legal representative;
c) The employee aged under 15 and his/her legal representative;
d) The employee lawfully authorized by the group of employees to conclude the employment contract.
5. The person who is authorized to conclude the employment contract must not authorize another person to conclude the employment contract.
Thus, concluding employment contracts for persons under 18 years of age is done in two cases:
- The employee aged 15 to under 18 with a written consensus by his/her legal representative;
- The employee aged under 15 and his/her legal representative.
What are the rules for employment of minors in Vietnam?
According to Clause 1, Article 143 of the 2019 Labor Code, a minor employee is an employee under 18 years of age.
Therefore, when employing minor employees, employers must follow the rules according to Article 144 of the 2019 Labor Code as follows:
- Minor employees may only do works that are suitable for their health in order to ensure their physical health, mental health and personality development.
- The employer who has minor employees has the responsibility to take care of their work, health and education in the course of their employment.
- When an employer hires a minor employee, the employer must have the consent of his/her parent or guardian; prepare a separate record which writes in full of his/her name, date of birth, the work assigned, results of periodical health check-ups, and shall be presented at the request of the competent authority.
- Employers shall enable minor employees to have educational and vocational training.
In addition, when employing minor employees under 15 years of age, the employer must also comply with the provisions of Article 145 of the 2019 Labor Code, guided in detail by Chapter II of Circular 09/2020/TT-BLDTBXH.
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