Are facilities in Vietnam with less than 10 employees required to make labor regulations? Are labor regulations required to be made in writing in Vietnam?

Are facilities in Vietnam with less than 10 employees required to make labor regulations?

According to the provisions of Article 119 of the Labor Code 2019, the regulations on the registration of labor contents are as follows:

1. An employer that has at least 10 employees shall register the internal labor regulations at the labor authority of the province where business registration is applied for.

2. Within 10 days from the date of issuance of the internal labor regulations, the employer must submit the application for registration of the internal labor regulations.

3. If any of the contents of the internal labor regulations is found contrary to the law, within 07 working days from the date of receipt of the application, the provincial labor authority shall notify and instruct the employer to revise it and re-submit the application.

4. An employer whose branches, units or business locations in different provinces shall send the registered internal labor regulations to the labor authority of those provinces.

5. The provincial labor authority may authorize a district-level labor authority to process an application for registration of internal labor regulations in accordance with this Article.

According to this Article, employers employing more than 10 or more employees must register labor regulations in Vietnam. Therefore, in case you ask, you do not need to register labor regulations (not required). In case there is no labor regulations, the contents of labor discipline and material responsibilities in the labor contract must be agreed.

Are labor regulations required to be made in writing in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 69 of Decree 145/2020/ND-CP on labor regulations as follows:

Internal labor regulations prescribed in Article 118 of the Labor Code are elaborated as follows:

1. Every employer shall issue their own internal labor regulations. An employer that has at least 10 employees shall have written internal labor regulations. Written regulations are not required if the employer has fewer than 10 employees but labor discipline and material responsibility must be included in the contents of the employment contracts.

2. The labor regulations must not contradict labor laws and relevant laws. Primary contents of labor regulations include:

a) Specific working hours, rest periods in 01 day, 01 week; work shifts; beginning and ending time of shifts; overtime work (if any); special cases of overtime work; extra rest breaks; breaks between shifts; weekly days off; annual leave, personal leave, unpaid leave;

b) Workplace order; work area, movement during working hours; code of conduct; dress code; compliance to job assignment by the employer;

c) Occupational hygiene and safety in the workplace: responsibility to comply with rules and regulations, procedures and measures for assurance of occupational hygiene, occupational safety and fire safety; use and preservation of personal safety equipment and other equipment serving assurance of occupational hygiene and safety at the work place; cleaning, decontamination and disinfection at the workplace;

d) The employer’s regulations on preventing and combating sexual harassment in the workplace; procedures for taking actions against sexual harassment in the workplace as prescribed in Article 85 of this Decree;

d) Protection of the employer’s assets, business secrets, technological secrets and intellectual property: A list of assets, documents, technological secrets, business secrets, intellectual property; responsibility, measures for protection thereof; definition of infringements upon these assets and secrets;

e) Specific cases in which employees may be temporarily reassigned against their employment contracts according to Clause 1 Article 29 of the Labor Code;

g) Specific employees’ violations and corresponding disciplinary actions;

h) Material responsibility: Cases in which the employee has to pay compensation for causing damage to or losing tools, instruments or assets; exceeding material consumption limits; compensation levels in proportion to the damage caused; persons having the power to claim compensation;

i) Persons having the power to take disciplinary actions: persons having the power to conclude employment contracts on behalf of the employer as prescribed in Clause 3 Article 18 of the Labor Code or specific persons specified in the internal labor regulations.

3. Before issuing or revising the internal labor regulations, the employer shall consult with the internal employee representative organization (if any) in accordance with Clause 1 Article 41 of this Decree.

4. The issued labor regulations shall be sent to every internal employee representative organization (if any) and all employees. Primary contents of internal labor regulations shall be publicly posted where necessary at the workplace.

Thus, according to the above provisions, in case of mandatory labor regulations (employers employing 10 or more employees), these labor regulations must be made in writing in Vietnam.

Best Regards!