With the complicated development of the storm and flood situation in the central and Central Highlands provinces recently, the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam has directed that in necessary cases, employees and students may be allowed to take leave. So, if they take leave due to storms and floods, will employees get paid?
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Employees are entitled to full paid leave for cases of taking leave due to storms and floods in Vietnam (Internet image)
Pursuant to the current regulations – Labor Code 2012, in case of leave due to storm and flood, employees are still entitled to stoppage pay as agreed upon, but not lower than the regional minimum wage in Vietnam.
Clause 3, Article 98 of the Labor Code 2012 stipulates:
3. If there is an electric or water failure not caused by the fault of the employer, employee, or other objective reasons such as natural disasters, fires, dangerous epidemics, enemy invasions, relocation of operational sites at the request of competent State agencies or for economic reasons, the stoppage pay shall be agreed upon by both parties but not lower than the regional minimum wage prescribed by the Government of Vietnam.
Thus, it can be seen that in cases where employees have to stop working due to storm and flood, which is a case of stoppage due to natural disasters, the stoppage pay shall be agreed upon by both parties but not lower than the regional minimum wage prescribed by the Government of Vietnam. The current regional minimum wage is:
- Region I: 4,420,000 VND/month;
- Region II: 3,920,000 VND/month;
- Region III: 3,430,000 VND/month;
- Region IV: 3,070,000 VND/month.
Based on the Regional Minimum Wage Lookup Table 2020, enterprises will pay stoppage pay to employees during the leave period due to the impact of the storm and flood.
Leave due to the impact of storm and flood may delay and disrupt the production process of the employer. Although, after the storm and flood, the enterprise cannot require employees to make up for the leave days. Instead, the enterprise may choose the option of using employees for overtime as stipulated in Article 106 of the Labor Code 2012 if the following conditions are met:
- With the consent of the employees;
- Ensuring that the overtime hours of the employees do not exceed 50% of the normal working hours in one day, in case of applying weekly work regulations, the total normal working hours and overtime hours do not exceed 12 hours in one day; not exceeding 30 hours in one month and total not exceeding 200 hours in one year, except for certain special cases prescribed by the Government of Vietnam which allows overtime not exceeding 300 hours in one year;
- After each period of continuous overtime work for many days in a month, the employer must arrange compensatory rest for employees equivalent to the time that employees have not been able to rest.
Thus, if agreed by the employees, the enterprise can utilize overtime to speed up the production progress and compensate for the deficiency caused by leave due to storm and flood in Vietnam.
Thuy Tram
