Foreign investor: Before setting up company in Vietnam, we would like to know regulation of leave category details of Vietnam Labor Code:
-How to decide leave – 12 days annual leave?
-How to apply annual leave?
Accident , Medical , Personal leave (as below) – Proof document required?
Personally Paid Leaves
– Three days for one’s own marriage;
– One day for marriage of one’s son or daughter
– Three days in case of death of the parent, parent-in-law, spouse, son or daughter;
– One day in case of death of the grandparent, siblings
– Male Employee is entitled to 01 day off in case of his wife’s giving birth
Maternity Leave
The female employee is entitled to maternity leave before and after child birth, for 6 months.
Lawyer of SBLAW: For your queries I would like to answer as follows:
1.How to decide leave – 12 days annual leave?
According to the provisions of Labor Code 2010, an employee who has 12 months in full to works for an employer shall be entitled to annual leave. For the employer who is working in normal working conditions, the annual leave shall be 12 working days; For the employee who is working in heavy, dangerous, or toxic jobs or in places with harsh living conditions under the list issued by the competent authorities, the annual leave shall be 14; For the employee who is working in extremely heavy, dangerous, or toxic jobs or in places with extremely harsh living conditions as the list issued by the competent authorities, the annual leave shall be 16.
To decide the annual leave, the employer can regulate it after consulting with the employees and give them the notice in advance.
The annual leave can be in installments or combining 03 annual leave into one leave maximally.
And the other thing is when taking annual leave, if the employee travel by road, railway and water way vehicles, the number of days to go and come back is over 02 days, from the 3rd day upwards, the traveling time is added besides the annual leave and is calculated only one time a year.
2. How to apply annual leave?
Your Company should regulate the above provisions in Internal Labor Regulation.
The employer who employs from ten (10) or more employees must have the labor rule in writing.
Before issuing the labor rule, the employer must consult the trade union at the grassroots level.
The labor rule must be notified to the worker and the main contents must be posted at necessary places within the enterprise.
The other thing is the labor regulation must register to the state management agency on labor at the provincial level.
3. Accident, Medical, Personal leave (as below) – Proof document required?
Vietnam Law is silent on requirement of proof documents for personal leaves. Generally, according to our practical experience, the employer may require Writing Letter duly issued by Hospital as proof documents for accident or medical leaves. For personal leave, very few companies require for proof documents as it may be sensitive to the customs of Vietnamese. You may consider following examples:
For the one’s own marriage, your Company can require the Certificate of registration of marriage or other documents (if any) to show their marriage (photos, other certificate granting by competent authority…).
The same to marriage of one’s son or daughter, your Company can require them to show the son or daughter’s Certificate of registration of marriage.
In practice, we note that many employees find this requirement not reasonable as they can have wedding party without need certificate of marriage registration or their son or daughter do not want to share their private information.
For the leave of death of the relatives, you can require them to show a Death Certificate of their parent, parent-in-law, spouse, son or daughter, grandparent, siblings. However, in practice, no company require for these proof as in Vietnam, as such requirements may be treated as immoral request.
For the leaves of female employees who have 01 day off in case of his wife’s giving birth. You can get the Certificate of Birth of his son or daughter.
4. Maternity Leave
The female employee is entitled to maternity leave before and after child birth, for 6 months.
For the maternity leave, your company can require the employee show the prenatal care result or ultrasound poll.
The prenatal period of leave shall not exceed 02 months. Hence, your Company can state in the Internal Labor Rule or negotiate with employee.
Last but not least, the above requirements or your regulation on personal leave, annual leave etc must be clearly stated in the Employment Contract or Internal Labor Rule of the Company. Than, it can be applicable to your employees.
