Vietnam: Procedures for filing a complaint and forms of complaint in the field of labor

Procedures for filing a complaint and forms of complaint are specified in Decree No. 24/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government as follows:

Procedures for filing a complaint

Decree No. 24/2018/NĐ-CP stipulates that an individual is entitled to file a complaint to the officer who has the power to conduct first-time complaint handling as regulated or file a lawsuit in the court as regulated if there are grounds for presuming that decisions or acts of an employer, a vocational education institution, an enterprise or organization providing Vietnamese guest worker programs, an employment service provider or an organization involved in creating employment for workers, or an organization organizing examination and issuance of national-level vocational certificates, are unlawful or infringe his/her legitimate rights and interests.

If a complainant disagrees with the first-time complaint handling decision or over the time limit prescribed, the complaint remains unhandled, he/she is entitled to file a lawsuit in the court in accordance with regulations or carry out procedures for the second-time filing of complaint as follows:

- With regard to a complaint related to labor or occupational safety and hygiene, the complainant shall file the complaint to the complaint handler prescribed in Clause 2 Article 15 hereof;

- With regard to a vocational education-related complaint, the complainant shall file the complaint to the complaint handler prescribed in Clause 2 Article 16 hereof;

- With regard to a Vietnamese guest worker-related complaint, the complainant shall file the complaint to the complaint handler prescribed in Clause 2 Article 17 hereof;

- With regard to an employment-related complaint, the complainant shall file the complaint to the complaint handler prescribed in Clause 2 Article 18 hereof.

If a complainant still disagrees with the second-time complaint handling decision or over the time limit prescribed, the complaint remains unhandled, he/she is entitled to file a lawsuit in the court.

If a defendant disagrees with the second-time complaint handling decision, he/she is entitled to bring an administrative case in accordance with regulations in Point dd Clause 1 Article 11 hereof.

Forms of complaint

A complaint may be made either in writing or orally. To be specific:

- If a complaint is made in writing, the written complaint must clearly state the date of complaint, name and address of the complainant, name and address of the defendant, contents of or reasons for filing the complaint, documents used in the complaint (if any) and the complainant's expectations. The complainant is required to append his/her signature or fingerprints to this written complaint.

- If an oral complaint is made, the person receiving the complaint shall instruct the complainant to make a written complaint or make a written record of the complaint with required details prescribed in Point a of this Clause and request the complaint to append his/her signature or fingerprints to the written record of the complaint.

If two or more people file complaint about the same content, the complaint shall be made as follows:

- If a written complaint is made, it must include details as prescribed, and bear signatures of all complainants who shall authorize a person to act as their representative to meet with the complaint handler as requested;

- If oral complaints are made, the competent authority shall receive and request complainants to appoint a representative to state contents of the complaint; the person receiving the complaint shall make a written record of the complaint with details as prescribed and request the representative to append his/her signature or fingerprints to this written record.

If a complaint is submitted by a representative, this representative is required to provide documents proving his/her capacity as a representative and carry out procedures for filing a complaint in accordance with regulations herein.

Decree No. 24/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government takes effect from April 15, 2018.

-Thao Uyen-

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