Vietnam: 04 cases employees are paid suspension pay due to Covid-19

Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, many enterprises had to suspend operations or reduce production, resulting in some workers having to stop working.

In order to implement the salary payment regime during the work suspension in accordance with the provisions of the labor law, the Department of Labor Relations and Wage guides enterprises to pay the suspension salary as following:

- The payment of suspension of work based on Article 99 of the Labor Code of Vietnam in order to consider cases causing suspension (employer’s fault or employee’s fault or objective reasons) to determine whether to pay suspension salary for employees.

- For 04 cases that employees have to suspend work due to direct impact of Covid-19, salary paid during time of suspension is implemented as prescribed in Clause 3 Article 99 of the Labor Code. Cases including:

(1) The employee must stop working during the quarantine period at the request of the competent authority.

(2) The employee must stop working due to the blockade of the place of work or residence at the request of the competent authority.

(3) Employees have to stop working because the enterprise or enterprise department have to suspend operations for disease prevention and control at the request of competent authorities.

(4) The employee has to stop working because the enterprise or enterprise department cannot operate because the employer or other workers in the same enterprise or enterprise department is in quarantine or have not returned to work.

If the suspension does not exceed 14 working days, the salary shall not fall below the statutory minimum wages;

If the suspension is longer than 14 working days, the salary shall be negotiated by both parties and the salary for the first 14 days must not fall below the statutory minimum wages.

Currently, region-based minimum wages are implemented as prescribed in Decree No. 90/2019/NĐ-CP:

For enterprises located in region I: VND 4,420,000/month.

For enterprises located in region II: VND 3,920,000/month.

For enterprises located in region III: VND 3,430,000/month.

For enterprises located in region IV: VND 3,070,000/month. 

Bao Ngoc

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