According to the provisions of the current law, an employment contract is signed by the employee and the employer. Therefore, from January 01, 2021, the effective date of the Labor Code 2019, who has the authority to sign the employment contract?
Article table of contents
Who has the authority to sign employment contracts from January 1, 2021? (Illustrative photo)
According to the regulations in Article 13 of the Labor Code 2019, an employment contract is an agreement between the employee and the employer regarding the paid work, wages, working conditions, rights, and obligations of each party in the labor relationship. Therefore, based on Article 18 of the Labor Code 2019, the authorities entitled to sign employment contracts are specified as follows:
1. The authority to sign employment contracts on the employer's side belongs to one of the following cases:
- The legal representative of the enterprise or the authorized person in accordance with the law;- The head of the agency, organization with legal entity status in accordance with the law or the authorized person in accordance with the law;- The representative of household, cooperative group, other organization without legal entity status or the authorized person in accordance with the law;- The individual who directly employs labor.
2. The authority to sign employment contracts on the employee's side belongs to one of the following cases:
- The employee from 18 years old and above;- The employee from 15 years old to under 18 years old with written consent from their legal representative;- The employee under 15 years old and their legal representative;- The employee authorized by a group of employees to sign the employment contract.
Thus, when employing workers, the enterprise and the employee must sign an employment contract, and it must be signed by the authorized person as regulated by law. Furthermore, when signing the employment contract, the employee and the enterprise must make a written agreement and fully comply with the contract contents as prescribed by law.
Additionally, if the two parties sign an employment contract but the person signing it is not authorized as specified above, the contract is considered wholly invalid according to point b, clause 1, Article 49 of the Labor Code 2019. Specifically:
“Article 49. Entirely Invalid Employment Contracts
1. The employment contract is entirely invalid in the following cases:
b) The person signing the employment contract is not authorized;”
It can be seen that the regulations on the authority to sign employment contracts in the Labor Code 2019 have not changed compared to the current regulations. However, the new Labor Code specifically regulates the persons who have the authority to sign employment contracts rather than being guided by Decree 05/2015/ND-CP as compared to the Labor Code 2012.
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