Signing labor contracts in Vietnam

After establishing a company, recruitment of employees is one of the issues that business owners need to pay attention to. For companies in Vietnam, in order to properly and legally employ employees, it is essential to have an understanding of the labor laws, especially labor contracts. This article will note some issues that Clients need to pay attention to in order to enter into and execute the labor contract in accordance with the Vietnamese laws & regulations.

The entities participating in a labor contract include the employee and the employer. For each party, the law has its own provisions on conditions.

Employer means an enterprise, agency, organization, cooperative, household, or individual that hires or employs labor under labor contracts. In these cases, the contracting representative on the employer’s side is the legal representative of the enterprise or cooperative or the person authorized in writing by the legal representative for the assignment. labor contract combination; the head of an agency, unit, or organization with legal status or a person authorized in writing by this head to conclude the labor contract; person authorized by members of households, cooperative groups, or other organizations without legal status to act as representatives. In case the employer is an individual, it must have full civil act capacity.

An employee is a person who has the ability to work, work under a labor contract, is paid a salary, and is subject to the management and administration of the employer. In most cases, the employee is from the full 18 years of age, but in some special cases, the employee may be a younger person. For underage employees from full 15 years old to under 18 years old, when entering into contracts, there must be consent in writing of the legal representative of the employee. For people under 15 years old, the person signing the labor contract will be the legal representative and the conclusion of the contract requires the consent of the person under 15 years old. For groups of employees, employees who are legally authorized by other people in the group will directly enter into labor contracts.

According to the current labor law, there are 3 types of labor contracts, including:

– Indefinite term labor contract: For this type of contract, the contract term, the time of termination of the validity of the contract is not determined in the contract content.

– Definite term labor contract: For this type of contract, the term and the time of termination of the validity of the contract is from full 12 months to 36 months.

– A seasonal labor contract or a certain job with a term of less than 12 months: This type of contract applies to short-term, temporary, and seasonal jobs. The current law does not allow this type of contract to be entered into for regular jobs for 12 months or more.

Normally, a labor contract must be made in writing and made into 02 copies, the employee keeps 01 copy, the employer keeps 01 copy. However, for temporary jobs with a term of less than 3 months, the parties can enter into a verbal labor contract.

A labor contract must have the following principal contents:

– Name and address of the employer or the lawful representative of the employer;

– Full name, date of birth, gender, residence address, identity card number, or other lawful documents of the employee;

– Job and workplace;

– Term of the labor contract;

– Wage, form of wage payment, deadline for wage payment, wage-based allowances, and other additional payments;

– Regimes for promotion and wage raise;

– Working time, rest time;

– Labor protection equipment for the employee;

– Social insurance and health insurance;

– Training, retraining, and occupational skill improvement.

– When entering into a labor contract, the employer is not allowed to keep the original of the employee’s identity papers, diplomas, and certificates. At the same time, the employer may not require the employee to provide money or other property security for the performance of the labor contract.

– The employee has the right to enter into a labor contract with many employers but must ensure the full implementation of the signed contents.

– In case the parties want to amend and supplement the labor contract, the parties can sign an annex to the labor contract. The employment contract addendum is an integral part of the employment contract and will have the same effect as the employment contract. As for the term of the labor contract, the parties are only allowed to amend once by the labor contract annex and not change the type of signed contract, except in some special cases.

Currently, LTS LAW is providing the drafting of labor contract templates for many different positions, including directors, experts, other managers, ordinary workers … With each contract model, Clients can use many different times for the same position. Clients wishing to use the service, or need further advice on labor contracts, please contact LTS LAW.