Salaries, bonuses and annual leave are always concerns for employees. So, from January 01, 2021, which is the official effective date of the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam, how many days of annual leave will employees have?
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According to Vietnam’s regulations, annual leave is one of the rights of employees. Therefore, based on the provisions inherited from the Labor Code 2012, under Article 113 of the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam (which will come into effect from January 01, 2021), the regulations regarding annual leave for employees are as follows:
Case 1: Any employee who has been working for an employer for 12 months is entitled to fully-paid annual leave, which is stipulated in his/her employment contract as follows:
The number of days of annual leave is as follows:
- 12 working days for employees who work in normal working conditions;
- 14 working days for employees that are minors, the disabled, employees who do laborious, toxic or dangerous works;
- 16 working days for employees who do highly laborious, toxic or dangerous work.
Case 2: An employee who has been working for an employer for less than 12 months will have a number of paid leave days proportional to the number of working months (example: Ms. T worked for company A for 5 months, then Ms. T had 05 days of annual leave).
Besides, Article 114 of the Labor Code 2019 stipulates that the annual leave of an employee shall increase by 01 day for every 05 years of employment with the same employer.
Thus, according to the above regulations, it can be seen that employees will have a corresponding number of annual leave days based on the number of months they have worked. Concurrently, employees should also note some rights and benefits related to annual leave, such as:
- An employee who, due to employment termination or job loss, has not taken or not entirely taken up his/her annual leave shall be paid in compensation for the untaken leave days.
- The employer has the responsibility to regulate the timetable for annual leaves after consultation with the employees and must give prior notice to the employees.
- An employee may reach an agreement with the employer on taking annual leave in installments or combining annual leave over a maximum period of up to 03 years.
- When an employee takes his/her annual leave before salary payment is due, he/she may receive an advance payment of at least the amount equal to their daily wage for the days of leave taken.
- When taking annual leave, should the employee travel by road, rail, water and the travel days, the traveling time in excess to 02 days will be added to the annual leave days. (Note: This policy shall only be granted once for an annual leave in a year).
On the other hand, in comparison with the Labor Code 2012, the Labor Code 2019 has made changes regarding the payment for unused annual leave days.
Specifically, according to Clause 3 Article 113 of the Labor Code 2019, an employee who, due to employment termination or job loss, has not taken or not entirely taken up his/her annual leave shall be paid in compensation for the untaken leave days. However, according to Clause 1 Article 114 of the current Labor Code, an employee who, due to employment termination, job loss or for other reasons, has not taken or fully not taken annual leave is entitled to a cash payment for the untaken leave days.
Thus, from January 01, 2021, if an employee has not taken all of their annual leave days or has not utilized all of the remaining days without terminating their employment or losing their job, they will not be entitled to receive payment for the unused days. Therefore, to ensure their rights, employees should use up all of their annual leave days or negotiate with their employer to take their annual leave in multiple periods or accumulate it to a maximum of three years.
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- Labor Code 2019
