This is one of the proposals put forward regarding working hours and rest time in the Draft Summary Report on the evaluation of 3 years of implementing the Labor Code.
Article table of contents
Draft Report summarizing and evaluating 03 years of implementing the 2012 Labor Code (LLC) on October 3, 2016, by the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs analyzed and evaluated the pros and cons after 03 years of implementing the LLC, thereby making suggestions and recommendations to overcome the limitations. Many prominent proposals are made concerning working hours and rest periods.
Right to refuse to work at night when raising children under 05 years old
Currently, due to job requirements, many workers have to work at night. Among them, there are not a few cases of workers with children under 05 years old. One of the difficulties workers face is that finding child care at night is very challenging, the cost of hiring a nanny is relatively high, and in reality, there are no specific regulations on policies for nighttime child care, primarily depending on the agreement between the parties. Therefore, due to the inadequacy of nighttime child care services, the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed that workers raising children under 5 years old have the right to refuse to work at night.
Increase overtime hours in a year
To ensure flexibility for employers, increase competitiveness in the labor market compared to countries in the region, especially in the context of international economic integration, and appropriate to our country's condition as a developing country, it is proposed to increase overtime hours in a year (considering regulations on maximum overtime hours in a day, a week). Increasing overtime hours is also reasonable and practical when workers need to work extra hours to increase their income.
Additionally, in cases of severe consequences due to natural disasters, fires, epidemics within the enterprise, agency, or organization, employers are allowed to mobilize overtime exceeding the stipulated limit but must obtain the worker's consent.
Increase paid leave days for workers
Propose to consider adding the anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory on May 7 each year to the national holiday. If this content is included in the Draft Law amending and supplementing certain Articles of the 2012 Labor Code (expected to be passed in 2017), workers will have an additional annual holiday with paid leave. At the same time, there is no specific regulation on how the 05 Tet Lunar New Year days off are taken. Therefore, specific guidance on this content is needed.
Besides the above content, this Draft Report also proposes many other important contents related to working hours and rest periods as follows:
- Clear regulations on shift breaks. The nature of shift breaks is to ensure health, so most countries stipulate this break time after a certain number of working hours and do not necessarily count it in working hours;- To help workers be more proactive with their holiday schedules, specific regulations on advance notice of annual leave schedules are needed;- Clarify the wages paid to workers for unused annual leave days, calculated based on which wage level? Actual wages or contract wages?
