Vietnam: Officials and public employees may not receive Tet bonuses in 2021

According to Article 12 of the Law on Officials 2008 of Vietnam, rights of officials to salaries and salary-related regimes are as follows:

1. To be paid by the State salaries matching with assigned tasks and powers and suitable to national socio-economic conditions. Officials working in mountainous, border, islands, deep-lying, remote and ethnic minority areas and areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions or in hazardous and dangerous sectors and occupations are entitled to allowances and incentive policies according to law.

2. To enjoy overtime and night-work pays, working trip allowances and other benefits according to law.

According to the above provisions, the Law on Officials 2008 of Vietnam does not have any provisions on the rights to receive Tet bonuses of officials, but only provides for other regimes as prescribed by law. Thus, it can be understood that the Tet bonus in 2021 for officials is not compulsory but will be decided by state agencies and units based on its funding sources, revenue and the results of evaluation and classification of officials.

Concurrently, according to Article 12 of the Law on Public Employees 2010 of Vietnam, the rights of public employees to salaries and salary-related regimes are as follows:

1. To be paid with salaries matching working positions, professional titles, managerial posts and results of work or task performance; to enjoy allowances and preferential policies when working in mountainous, border, island, deep-lying, remote and ethnic minority areas and areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions or in hazardous and dangerous sectors or occupations or special non-business fields.

2. To enjoy overtime and night work pays, working trip allowances and other benefits according to law and regulations of public non-business units.

3. To enjoy monetary rewards and be considered for salary raise under law and regulations of public non-business units.

Thus, like officials, there are no specific regulations on Tet bonuses for public employees. Accordingly, public non-business units are not required to give Tet bonuses to their employees. Concurrently, the Tet bonus in 2021 for public employees will be in accordance with the law and the regulations of that public non-business unit based on the assessment of the capacity and working efficiency of each public employee.

According to the above analysis, it can be seen that the law does not specifically stipulate that state agencies, public non-business units and enterprises are required to give Tet bonuses to officials and public employees. The Tet bonus for officials and public employees will be decided by the State agencies and public non-business units based on the assessment of the capacity and working efficiency of each official, public employee. Therefore, it is likely that officials and public employees will not receive Tet bonuses in 2021 due to the Covid-19 epidemic situation in 2020 affecting funding and revenue.

Besides, according to the Official Dispatch No. 9895/VPCP-KGVX of the Government’s Office, the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam on Tet holiday of the year of the Buffalo 2021. Specifically, officials, public employees and employees  are entitled to a 7-day Tet holiday (from February 10, 2021 to the end of February 16, 2021) and a 4-day National Day holiday (from September 02, 2021 to the end of September 05, 2021).

Therefore, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2021, officials, public employees and employees  are entitled to a 7-day Tet holiday. The official holiday time is from February 10, 2021 (Wednesday) to February 16, 2021 (Tuesday) of the solar calendar (ie, December 29 of the year of the Rat to January 5 of the New Year of the Buffalo).

Ty Na

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