Introduction
The Vietnamese labor law is oriented employee-friendly to the greatest extent and in most cases is interpreted to the disadvantage of the employer. It has an effect particularly in labor law-related disputes which are in most cases decided in favor of the employee. The employment contract has to be based on the standard contract drawn up by MOLISA which, however, can and should be adjusted to individual requirements of particular enterprises in order to do justice to the interests of employers and employees. Here, a particular attention should be directed to non-competition clauses and such which ensure the protection of company secrets. However, the statutory provisions must not be violated in order to avoid nullity of the labor contract. Since the Vietnamese law is still immature, enterprises and subordinate agencies can by all means have a direct influence on its development by pointing to inconsistencies. Legal bases can be found in various statutes, but the core law is the Labor Code of 02 July 2012. Moreover, the labor law-related issues are regulated by the National Insurance Act, the Vocational and Further Education Act, the Trade Union Act as well as the Act on Vietnamese Working Abroad and numerous implementing regulations of the government and competent ministries. The Vietnamese law does not now industry-wide multi-employer agreements yet. Practice-oriented are rather collective work agreements in which the wage level, social security contributions, working hours and breaks, safety at work and rights to strike as well as the bonus system are regulated and which have to be signed by a trade union representative and the principal of the company. Enterprises with more than ten employees are obliged to issue the so-called Internal Labor Rules and to register them with MOLISA. They have to regulate the following contents:
– working hours and rest periods;
– regulations within the company;
– health and safety at work;
– protection of the property and confidentiality of company secrets;
– specific examples of behaviors meaning a violation of these provisions;
– punishments to be expected in case of infringement (e.g. official rebuke) Continue reading “Lawyer in Vietnam Oliver Massmann Labor law”