Is it permissible to assign a teacher as the Head of the Pioneer Team without the right expertise in Vietnam?

Is it permissible to assign a teacher as the team leader without the right expertise in Vietnam?​ (Illustrative image)

To be specific, my case is as follows: I am currently a Math teacher at a secondary school employed according to the provisions of the 2010 Law on Public Employees. This year, the principal assigned me as the Head of the Pioneer Team. I did not agree with this assignment, but the principal used his authority to force me to take on a position that does not match the job I was initially hired for. I would like to ask whether the principal’s action is correct or not. (tranlan****@gmail.com)

Regarding this matter, the support team of Lawnet has some opinions as follows:

According to Article 19 of Circular 12/2011/TT-BGDDT:

1. Duties and authority of the Principal

...

dd) Manage teachers, staff; manage specialties; assign tasks, inspect, evaluate and classify teachers and staff;...

The assignment of a teacher as Head of the Pioneer Team is stipulated in Article 4 Circular 27/2017/TT-BGDDT as follows:

Article 4. Assignment of teachers as Head of the Pioneer Team

1. The principal must reach an agreement with the School Council on selecting a teacher as the Head of the Pioneer Team.

2. The principal issues a decision to appoint the Head of the Pioneer Team of the school after having the agreement of the Department of Education and Training or the Department of Education and Training (the unit managing the school directly) and the Pioneer Team Council of the same level.

Thus, the assignment of you as the Head of the Pioneer Team by the principal needs to be agreed upon with the School Council and must have the consensus of the Department of Education and Training of Vietnam and the Pioneer Team Council, not merely a subjective assignment by the principal.

Moreover, according to Clause 6, Article 11 of the 2010 Law on Public Employees, public employees in Vietnam “have the right to refuse to perform work or tasks that are contrary to the law.” Hence, you can refuse only if the work is against the law.

However, appointing a teacher as the Head of the Pioneer Team while not teaching the correct specialty is quite common and not against the law. Because Clause 1, Article 5 of Circular 27/2017/TT-BGDDT stipulates as follows:

1. The term of a teacher assigned as the Head of the Pioneer Team is 05 years. After this period, the school is responsible for arranging the teacher to return to teaching according to the specialty they were trained in.

Therefore, you do not have the right to refuse this task as it does not violate the law, and you need to perform the duty as legally assigned by the principal.

If in this case, you find that the principal did not properly follow the procedures for selecting the Head of the Pioneer Team, or appointed you without the agreement of the said authorities, you may file a complaint directly to the principal. If the principal does not resolve it within 30 days, you can escalate the complaint to the school's upper management.

If the principal has properly followed the procedures to appoint the Head of the Pioneer Team, then you need to perform the assigned duty (based on Clause 3, Article 17 of the 2010 Law on Public Employees: Public employees are obligated to “comply with the work assignments by the authorized person”).

Hai Thanh

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