Vietnam: Forms Of Handling Violations Of Labor Discipline In Vietnam

Article 124 Section 1 Chapter VIII Labor Code 2019 No. 45/2019/QH14 ("Labor Code 2019") prescribes 4 forms of handling violations of labor discipline in Vietnam, including Reprimand, Deferment of pay rise for up to 6 months, Demotion, or Dismissal. In the following article, ASL LAW will summarize the main characteristics of the 4 forms of handling violations of labor discipline above.

Reprimand

Reprimand is the lightest form of handling violations of labor discipline. In particular, employees who make relatively minor mistakes at work will be analyzed by the employer for their mistakes and reminded and reprimanded so that they can improve and not repeat the same old mistakes.

Deciding whether the error is serious or light will depend on the employee's job position as well as the enterprise's perspective on whether the error is serious or light in nature. Different businesses may perceive errors of the same nature with different severity and lightness.

However, basically, most of the errors to be reprimanded will be minor errors that do not seriously affect the company's interests, image, employee-employee relations or the ability to manage and supervise employees of the employer, etc.

In terms of form, the reprimand can be made orally or officially notified in writing to an individual employee or the company as a whole. Depending on the purpose and actual situation, the enterprise can notify the entire company with the purpose of deterring and warning other employees not to make the same mistakes.

However, for more severe forms of disciplinary action, it will usually be a confidential notice to the employee, which may include the leadership and management levels, who are involved in the incident, but not a public notification to the entire company.

The time limit for disciplining the form of reprimand is 3 months. After 03 months of compliance, the employee will be disciplined according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 126 of the Labor Code 2019.

Deferment of pay rise for up to 6 months

The second form of handling violations of labor discipline in Vietnam is to extend the time limit for salary increase to no more than 06 months.

Accordingly, for employees who are on a year-end salary increase schedule and are considered for a salary increase in January next year, the review period will be pushed back for a period of 1 to 6 months. At the end of the above time limit, if the salary increase schedule is the company's policy, the employee can request the employer to consider raising the salary based on his/her performance in handling work, co-worker relations, their value to the company, etc.

Similar to the form of reprimand, violations are subject to the form of labor disciplinary action to prolong the salary increase period which is not specified in the Labor Code. Employers need to specify in detail the cases of level 2 labor discipline in the labor regulations, which can be considered based on the effect of the behavior on the company in terms of monetary value: not serious, serious, and especially serious.

Demotion

The form of handling violations of labor discipline, Demotion, is normally applied to all levels of management in the company. This is the group of employees that have the ability to make a huge impact on the company's operating processes.

Thereby, managers can be dismissed, from director to deputy director, senior manager to middle manager, department head to deputy/staff, etc. The company's labor regulations will prescribe clearly cases in which employees are subject to demotion disciplinary action.

The form of demotion is the only form where the employee's income is affected in the company because he/she no longer holds the old position with the old salary. This is not the transfer of employees to work other than the labor contract as prescribed in Article 29 of the Labor Code 2019 due to natural disasters, fires, and dangerous epidemics.

Thereby, the regulations on keeping the old salary unchanged for 30 working days or the new job salary must be at least 85% of the old job salary will not be applied.

Dismissal

Dismissal is the highest form of handling violations of labor discipline prescribed in the Labor Code.

According to the provisions of Article 125 of the Labor Code 2019, the employer can apply the form of dismissal labor discipline to the employee in the following cases:

1. The employee commits an act of theft, embezzlement, gambling, deliberate infliction of injuries or uses drug at the workplace;

2. The employee discloses technological or business secrets or infringing the intellectual property rights of the employer, or commits acts which are seriously detrimental or posing seriously detrimental threat to the assets or interests of the employer, or commits sexual harassment in the workplace against the internal labor regulations;

3. The employee repeats a violation which was disciplined by deferment of pay rise or demotion and has not been absolved. A repeated violation means a violation which was disciplined and is repeated before it is absolved.

4. The employee fails to go to work for a total period of 05 days in 30 days, or for a total period of 20 days in 365 days from the first day he/she fails to go to work without acceptable excuses.

Justified reasons include natural disasters, fires; the employee or his/her family member suffers from illness with a certification by a competent health facility; and other reasons as stipulated in the internal labor regulations.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.