If a person goes on a business trip on a day off, is it counted as overtime in Vietnam?

If a person goes on a business trip on a day off, is it counted as overtime in Vietnam? - image from internet

According to the current labor laws, overtime work must be agreed upon by the employee. Below information is the legal basis for the issue:

Clause 7, Article 1 of Circular 97/2010/TT-BTC dated July 6, 2010, issued by the Ministry of Finance provides guidance on business trips. If an employee is required to work overtime on days designated for business trips, they are entitled to receive overtime pay in addition to the accommodation allowance, according to the current regulations for officials and public employees.

The head of the agency or unit is responsible for specific provisions in the internal expenditure regulations, including procedures for confirming overtime work as a basis for payment. They also determine the cases in which overtime pay is granted for business trips, ensuring that payments are only made when authorized authorities require employees to work overtime and not for cases where business trips are combined with personal matters on days off.

According to the above regulations, if an official or public emplyee is sent on a business trip and is required to work overtime on a day off, they are entitled to receive overtime pay in addition to the accommodation allowance.

The calculation of overtime pay is carried out according to the regulations stated in Joint Circular 08/2005/TTLT-BNV-BTC dated January 5, 2005, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance, which provides guidance on the payment for night work and overtime for officials and public employees.

According to Labor Code in 2012, overtime work is stipulated as follows:

1. Overtime is time worked in addition to normal working hours prescribed in the law, collective labor agreements or internal working regulations.

2. An employer may request an employee to work overtime upon fully meeting the following conditions:

a/ Obtaining the employee’s consent;

b/ Ensuring that the number of overtime working hours of the employee does not exceed 50% of the normal working hours per day; in case of applying regulations on weekly work, the total of normal working hours and overtime working hours must not exceed 12 hours per day; does not exceed 30 hours per month and the total of overtime working hours must not exceed 200 hours per year, except some special cases as stipulated by the Government in which overtime working hours must not exceed 300 hours per year;

c/ After each period with many consecutive days of working overtime within a month, the employer shall arrange compensatory days off for the employee.

If you agree to work overtime at the request of the employer, with a maximum continuous duration of 7 days, the employer must arrange make-up leave for you. In the case that the employer fails to arrange make-up leave for you, they are required to pay you overtime wages according to the regulations for overtime pay.

According to Clause 2.c, Article 106 Labor Code in 2012, the following regulations are stipulated:

a) After each period of working overtime for a maximum of 7 consecutive days in a month, the employer must arrange for the employee to take compensatory leave for the time not taken off.

b) In cases where the employer fails to arrange sufficient compensatory leave, they must pay overtime wages according to the regulations stated in Article 97 of the Labor Code.

In your case, since you are not required to work overtime for a continuous period of 7 days, the company may not arrange compensatory leave for you. Instead, they will pay you overtime wages on your day off. This is based on the following:

Furthermore, for overtime work and night work, the employee is entitled to overtime wages calculated based on the hourly rate or the wage rate for the tasks being performed. On weekly days off, the overtime wage must be at least 200%.

Best regards!