Working Full Hours on Menstrual Days, Female Workers Receive Additional Compensation

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To be specific, this Decree stipulates fines ranging from VND 500,000 to VND 1,000,000 for employers who commit one of the following acts:

- Failing to consult female employees or their representatives when deciding on issues related to the rights and benefits of female employees;

• - Not allowing female employees 30 minutes of rest each day during their menstrual period.*

Thus, according to the above regulations, if the employer does not give female employees 30 minutes of rest each day during their menstrual period, they will be fined ranging from VND 500,000 to VND 1,000,000 for individual employers and from VND 1,000,000 to VND 2,000,000 for organizational employers.

Additionally, employers are also required to pay overtime wages to employees for this violation. This means that when employers do not allow employees to rest 30 minutes each day during their menstrual period, in addition to being fined, employees will also receive overtime wages as stipulated in Article 97 of the 2012 Labor Code for this 30 minutes of rest they did not receive. (This is a new regulation in Decree 28 as currently, Decree 95/2013/ND-CP does not have regulations on this issue).

Additionally, Decree 28 also stipulates fines ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 for individual employers who commit one of the following acts:

- Using female employees for overtime, night shifts, or distant business trips under one of the following circumstances: pregnant from the 7th month or from the 6th month if working in highland, remote, border, or island areas; raising a child under 12 months old;

- Failing to transfer to a lighter job or reduce working hours for female employees who are pregnant from the 7th month and doing heavy work in accordance with Clause 2, Article 155 of the Labor Code;

- Not allowing female employees who are nursing a child under 12 months old to rest 60 minutes each day;

- Not ensuring the same job position when female employees return to work after maternity leave as stipulated in Clauses 1 and 3, Article 157 of the Labor Code, except where the old job position no longer exists;

- Disciplining female employees during their pregnancy, maternity leave as prescribed by social insurance laws, or while raising a child under 12 months old;

- Terminating or unilaterally ending the labor contract with female employees for reasons of marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave, raising a child under 12 months old, except where the individual employer dies, is declared legally incapacitated, missing, or dead by the court, or the non-individual employer ceases operation without being subject to criminal liability;

- Using female employees in work prohibited for female workers as stipulated in Article 160 of the Labor Code.

For organizational employers, the fine amount will be doubled.

View more details of Decree 28/2020/ND-CPHERE.

Nguyen Trinh

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