Key Takeaways
Enterprises should review these new overtime regulations for full compliance and to have more flexibility in organizing working hours for employees.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any inquiries concerning these policies.
In more detail
Relaxed regulation on annual overtime hour cap up to 300 hours
The standard annual overtime cap in Vietnam is 200 hours. The Labor Code 2019 currently provides specific exceptional industries, sectors and job positions where the annual overtime cap can exceed 200 hours and be up to 300 hours.
Resolution No. 17 has removed those restrictions and provides, in general, that if an employer of any industry and sector has business demand and obtains employees' consent for overtime work, such employer is allowed to have employees work overtime for more than 200 hours but not exceeding 300 hours in a year. There are, however, certain protected classes of employees to whom this will not apply, namely:
- An employee who is from full 15 years old to under 18 years old.
- An employee who is a mildly disabled person with working capacity being decreased upwards of 51%, a severely disabled person, or a person with extreme severe disability.
- An employee doing heavy, hazardous, dangerous or extremely heavy, hazardous, dangerous occupations or jobs.
- A female employee who is on the seventh month or more of pregnancy or on the sixth month or more of pregnancy if she works in a highland, deep-lying, remote, border, or island area.
- A female employee who is raising a child under 12 months old.
Increased monthly overtime cap
The standard monthly overtime cap as provided under the Labor Code 2019 is 40 hours. Pursuant to Resolution No. 17, for employees who are not within the above-mentioned protected classes, an employer may have such employees work overtime for more than 40 hours but not exceeding 60 hours in a month if there is business demand and the employer has obtained the employees' consent. This increased monthly overtime cap will take effect on 1 April 2022.
This client alert has been prepared with contribution from Le Ha An Ngoc and Duong Nguyen Minh Hieu.
