Labor Policy - Effective for Businesses from Early November 2018

1. Some amended regulations on salary effective from November 1, 2018

The Government of Vietnam has issued Decree 121/2018/ND-CP to amend and supplement some articles of Decree 49/2013/ND-CP detailing the implementation of some provisions of the Labor Code regarding salary.

Decree 121 supplements the regulation that enterprises must establish labor norms as a basis for paying wages to employees in cases where wages are paid based on productivity. The establishment of these norms must comply with the principles stipulated in Article 8 of Decree 49/2013/ND-CP.

Additionally, this Decree supplements the end of point a, Clause 2, Article 10 of Decree 49/2013/ND-CP with the following provision:

"For enterprises employing fewer than 10 laborers, the procedure of sending salary scales, salary tables, and labor norms to the district-level state labor management agency where the enterprise's production, business establishment is located is waived."

More details can be found in Decree 121/2018/ND-CP, effective from November 1, 2018.

1. 05 cases entitled to free e-invoices

From November 1, 2018, according to the guidelines in Decree 119/2018/ND-CP, the General Department of Taxation provides the e-invoice service with tax authority's code free of charge for enterprises (DN), economic organizations, households, and individual businesses in the following cases:

- Small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives, households, and individual businesses in areas with difficult or exceptionally difficult socio-economic conditions;- Small and medium-sized startup innovative enterprises according to law and households, individual businesses converting into enterprises within 12 months from the date of establishment;- Households, individual businesses with the previous year's revenue of 3 billion VND or more in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, construction or with the previous year's revenue of 10 billion VND or more in trade, services during the 12 months from the month of applying e-invoices with tax authority's code as regulated;- Other small and medium-sized enterprises as proposed by the People's Committees of provinces, centrally-run cities and regulated by the Ministry of Finance except for enterprises operating in economic zones, industrial parks, and hi-tech parks;- Other necessary cases to encourage the use of e-invoices as decided by the Ministry of Finance.

1. 04 forms of handling products after recall

This is the basic content stipulated in Circular 23/2018/TT-BYT on the recall and handling of unsafe food under the management of the Ministry of Health, officially effective from November 1, 2018.

Products to be recalled are handled in one of the following forms:

- Label correction: Applicable to products violating labeling regulations compared to self-declaration or product registration documents;- Purpose change: Applicable to products violating with the risk of affecting consumer health and cannot be used in food but can be used in other fields;- Re-export: Applicable to imported products whose quality, safety limits are not in compliance with self-declaration or product registration documents or affect consumer health;- Destruction: Applicable to products with quality indicators or safety limits non-compliant with self-declaration/product registration documents affecting consumer health, cannot change purpose or re-export, and other necessary cases specified in Article 6 of Circular 23.

1. Abolition of some regulations on military service from November 10, 2018

On September 24, 2018, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree 129/2018/ND-CP abolishing several legal documents in the field of national defense.

This Decree abolishes several documents regulating military service responsibilities as follows:

- Decision 191-CP on handling deserters, youths avoiding service in active duty and those obstructing the implementation of military service policies;- Decree 63/2002/ND-CP on medical examination and treatment for immediate family members of active-duty officers;- Decree 38/2007/ND-CP on deferral and exemption from conscription during peacetime for eligible males within the conscription age range;

Decree 129/2018/ND-CP takes effect on November 10, 2018.

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