Tiếng Việt
中文 (中国)
Vietnamese enterprises usually penalize their employees by administrative measures – fines by a small to a large amount of money. The money can be submitted by the employee or it can be subtracted directly from the employee’s wages at the end of the money. However, is this correct? Is fine behavior instead of labor discipline in Vietnam legal?
The employees and the employers in Vietnam need to separate and make clear the concepts of small errors and the errors that must be held accountable by law.
Errors that required the employees to take responsibility and cover the consequences with their own assets are stipulated clearly in the labor regulations of the enterprise before the employee officially works. Normally, this error is large and most enterprises will require compensation, in addition to the labor discipline.
However, for small errors like coming late to the company, wearing slightly inappropriate outfits, forgetting to clean the working space, etc., the employers should remind the employees of their fault, not directly requiring them to pay the fines, or cutting the wages at the end of the month with or without announcement.
if the matter gets serious, it’s bad for both sides. The employees might decide to take the dispute to another level and point out that the employer is violating Article 127 of the Labor Code 2019.
Specifically, the prohibited acts of employers when handling labor discipline are:
- Infringing upon the health, honor, life, reputation, and dignity of employees.
- Fines, cut wages instead of handling labor discipline.
- Handling labor discipline for employees whose violations are not specified in the labor regulations or not agreed upon in the signed labor contract or not provided for by the labor law.
Thus, the act of imposing fines, and cutting wages instead of handling labor discipline is a prohibited act when handling labor discipline.
Penalties for employers who violate the regulations on disciplinary actions
According to Article 19 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP, the employer who violates the regulations on disciplinary actions will receive a fine ranging from VND 20,000,000 to VND 40,000,000 when committing one of the following acts:
- Infringing upon the health, honor, life, reputation, or dignity of employees when handling labor discipline but not to the extent of criminal prosecution;
- Using the form of a fine or salary cut instead of handling labor discipline;
- Handling labor discipline for employees whose violations are not specified in the internal labor regulations or not as agreed in the signed labor contract or not provided for by the labor law;
- Apply many forms of labor discipline to a violation of labor discipline;
- Handling labor discipline for employees who are in the following period: sick leave; nursing leave; leave with the consent of the employer; being detained; is being held in custody; are awaiting results of competent authorities to investigate, verify and draw conclusions for the violations specified in Clauses 1 and 2, Article 125 of the Labor Code.
If the employer did apply administrative fines or wages subtraction, he/she will be forced to publicly apologize to the employee and shall be fined from VND 20,000,000 to VND 40,000,000.
In addition, the employer must also take remedial measures which are to return the money collected or pay full wages to the employees for violations.
Therefore, in case the company uses a fine instead of disciplinary action, in addition to being fined, the company must return the employee’s collected money.
In reality, however, if the fines are small and aren’t entirely illogical, it’s best that the employee pay the small fines and take notes of their mistake so as not to repeat that mistake again.
For most employees, a small fine is more acceptable than being recorded in their profile as having committed a violation action.
ASL LAW is the top-tier Vietnam law firm for Employment and Labor Law. If you need any advice, please contact us for further information or collaboration.
|
***Other service of ASL LAW – full service Vietnam law firm *** |
|
|
|
|
||
|
Oversea investment consultancy for Vietnamese enterprises |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
