From January 01, 2021, when the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam officially takes effect, employees will be supplemented with more benefits compared to current regulations. In which, there are regulations on sexual harassment in the workplace.
Article table of contents
According to Clause 9 Article 3 of the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam, “sexual harassment” in the workplace means any sexual act of a person against another person in the workplace against the latter’s will. “workplace” means the location when an employee works under agreement or as assigned by the employer.
According to Clause 3 Article 8 of the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam, sexual harassment in the workplace is one of the forbidden actions. Concurrently, sexual harassment in the workplace is also a content required in the internal labor regulations of any enterprise according to Article 118 of this Law.
Thus, from January 01, 2021, employees sexually harassing employees at work or the bosses sexually harassing employees will be considered a violation of the law and strictly prohibited. So, what behavior is considered sexual harassment in the workplace?
According to Article 12 of the Draft Decree on regulations on policies for female workers and ensuring gender equality, workplace sexual harassment is conduct of a sexual nature by any person toward another person in the workplace that is not desired or accepted by that person, including:
- Actions, gestures of a sexual nature;
- Language, visual materials that specifically refer to, describe or relate to sexual activity;
- Propose, request, suggest to exchange sexual relations for favor evaluation or the promise of work, salary or bonus.
Note: The workplace specified above is any place where the employee actually works as agreed or assigned by the employer, including work-related places or things such as work-related social activities, seminars, trainings, official business trips, work-related meals, conversations on work-related telephones, work-related communication activities via electronic means.
Therefore, in order to protect employees in cases of sexual harassment at work, the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam has added many provisions related to the protection of workers' rights. To be specific:
- According to Point d Clause 2 Article 35 of the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam, an employee is shall have the right to unilaterally terminate the employment contract without prior notice if he/she:
“d) is sexually harassed in the workplace;”
- According to Clause 2 Article 125 of the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam, an employer may dismiss an employee for disciplinary reasons in the following circumstances:
“2. The employee discloses technological or business secrets or infringing the intellectual property rights of the employer, or commits acts which are seriously detrimental or posing seriously detrimental threat to the assets or interests of the employer, or commits sexual harassment in the workplace against the internal labor regulations;”
Thus, according to the above provisions, the employee can unilaterally terminate the labor contract immediately without prior notice if he/she is sexually harassed in the workplace by the “boss” by hugging, kissing, touching, caressing, deliberately touching, sending pornographic, depraved or soliciting images in exchange for favors, promotion at work, to promise a salary increase, etc. Employees who sexually harass colleagues at work will be subject to the highest form of labor discipline, which is dismissal (fire).
It can be seen that from 2021, when the Labor Code 2019 of Vietnam officially takes effect, employees will be protected more strongly in the case of sexual harassment in the workplace than in the past. Previously, the Labor Code 2012 of Vietnam mentioned sexual harassment, but it is only scattered in a number of provisions as one of the prohibited acts and as one of the grounds for the employee to exercise the right to unilaterally terminate the labor contract ahead of time without a specific definition of this behavior does not require the labor regulations to contain content on preventing and combating sexual harassment at work.
Ty Na
- Key word:
- Labor Code 2019
