Hello dear listeners, welcome back to the Lawyers Talk channel from BLawyers Vietnam. I am Duong Minh Tuyen, and I am pleased to meet everyone again on today’s Podcast episode. Today, we will discuss a very important topic for business operations, which is the establishment and issuance of internal labor documents.
Accompanying us today is Mr. Bui Quang Thai. Mr. Thai will share with us some related issues as well as practical experience in supporting and offering consulting advice to clients about important internal labor documents of enterprises.
Guest
Hello, Tuyen and listeners of The Lawyers Talk. I hope that sharing information within the scope of today’s topic we will be able to help listeners have an overview of important internal labor documents of enterprises. Listeners can then review and make additions and adjustments when necessary to ensure compliance with the legal regulations of enterprises.
Host
During my course of work, I have found that there are many labor disputes, especially individual labor disputes between employees and employers. Although the current labor legal corridor is relatively complete and clear, as well as separate the rights and obligations of the parties in the labor relationship as well as establish mechanisms to resolve problems that arise during the process of establishing, implementing, and terminating labor relationships or arise from relationships directly related to labor relationships. So, according to your view, what is the cause of these disputes?
Guest
In practice, individual labor disputes are very diverse. In my opinion, most of these disputes arise because employers do not fully understand their own rights and obligations in the labor relationship, leading to two common problems. First, there is no guarantee of compliance with relevant current laws. And second, it is not possible to establish and specify internal documents within the scope of the law as a basis for solving problems that arise.
Therefore, to minimize labor disputes and protect their rights, employers need to pay attention to establishing a complete internal documentation system according to the provisions of law.
Host
When mentioning internal documents related to labor, I think that I, as well as many other people, immediately think of internal labor regulations because this is an important document that stipulates the code of conduct that employees need to comply with when working for employers. Accordingly, internal labor regulations are the basis for employers to handle labor discipline and compensate for damages according to the responsibility regime for employees who commit violations. The main and mandatory content of internal labor regulations is clearly presented in current legal documents for employers to refer to and implement accordingly. However, I have found that many enterprises have problems in complying with the establishing and issuing process. So, can you summarize a few notes related to this issue for our listeners?
Guest
Just like Tuyen said, regulations on the process of establishing and issuing internal labor regulations are “scattered” in different laws, making it easy for the employers to miss them. Accordingly, the issuance of internal labor regulations is only mandatory for employers employing at least 10 employees, and enterprises will be fined for administrative violations of up to VND20 million if they do not establish and issue internal labor regulations in this case. If employing less than 10 employees, employers are not required to issue written internal labor regulations but shall agree on the content of labor discipline and responsibilities in the labor contract.
Before issuing internal labor regulations or amending or supplementing internal labor regulations, employers shall consult with the representative organization of employees at the workplace where such an organization exists, and organize dialogues according to current laws and grassroots-level democracy regulations at the workplace.
Within 10 days from the date of issuance of internal labor regulations, employers shall submit an application to register internal labor regulations at the specialized labor authority under the Provincial People’s Committee where the employers register their businesses. In addition, after issuing, the employers shall send a notice to the representative organization of employees at the workplace and notify all employees as well as post it in necessary places at the workplace.
Host
Thank you, Mr. Thai, for your complete and clear notes related to internal labor regulations.
In the content that Mr. Thai has just shared, I have heard about grassroots-level democracy regulations, and it is often referred to more briefly as democracy regulations. I found that this is a document that is quite unfamiliar to enterprises even though it is a mandatory document according to labor laws and plays an important role and the basis for implementing the provisions of dialogue and implementing democracy at the grassroots at the workplace.
Guest
Yes, the issuance of democracy regulations has some similarities with internal labor regulations. Accordingly, the employers are only required to issue democracy regulations for the use of at least 10 employees and enterprises will be fined for administrative violations of up to VND20 million if they do not establish and issue democracy regulations in this case.
Democracy regulations include content about the employees right to know, to participate in, to supervise and to decide for themselves. Democracy regulations also stipulate contents, participants, time and method of organizing dialogue at the workplace and employee conferences according to the provisions of law.
Accordingly, democracy regulations truly affect many other work and labor-related processes of employers. However, in practice, I have found that many enterprises do not know or “intentionally ignore” this document. Accordingly, if listeners fall into this situation, you need to quickly consider implementing appropriate establishment and issuance to avoid any future consequences.
Host
In addition, regarding the process of establishing, amending and supplementing democracy regulations, the employers shall consult with the representative organization of employees at the workplace (if any) and the representative group for dialogue of employees (if any) to complete and issue.
Guest
In addition to the two documents that we just discussed, there is still one internal document related to labor that the employers are required to establish: the pay scale and payrolls as a basis for recruiting, using employees, or negotiating a salary according to the job or title stated in the labor contract, and paying employees. The employers will be fined for administrative violations of up to VND20 million if they do not establish a pay scale and payrolls in this case.
When establishing pay scale and payrolls, the employers shall consult with the representative organization of employees at the workplace for places where such an organization exists and organize a dialogue in accordance with current laws and democracy regulations, similar to establishing internal labor regulations. The pay scale and payrolls shall also be publicly announced by the employers at the workplace before implementation.
Host
In addition to mandatory documents for the employers, in this Podcast episode, we also want to share with listeners about two other labor documents. Although they are not mandatory, they still play a very important role in business management activities and will bring high risk disputes arising if the employers are not careful in their establishment and application.
The first document is a collective labor agreement, which is an agreement reached through collective bargaining and signed in writing by the involved parties stipulating working conditions, regimes and labor benefits for employees. The contents of collective labor agreements shall not be contrary to the provisions of law and should be encouraged to be more beneficial to employees than prescribed by law.
Regarding the process of signing collective labor agreements, I wonder if there is anything different from the previously mentioned documents?
Guest
Yes, with the characteristic of recording the agreement between the employers and the employees, the draft collective labor agreements negotiated by the parties shall be approved by all employees in the enterprise. And the collective labor agreements can only be signed when more than 50% of the employees of the enterprise vote in favor.
Within 10 days from the date the collective labor agreement is signed, the employers participating in the agreement must send one copy of the collective labor agreement to the specialized labor agency under the provincial People’s Committee where the head office is located. In addition, after the collective labor agreement is signed, the employers shall inform their employees.
Host
Thank you, Mr. Thai. It can be seen that different internal labor documents have different regulations regarding their establishment, signing, and issuance, which employers need to be particularly careful about to avoid the situation in which despite having documents, they cannot be applied because they were invalid due to procedural errors.
Guest
There is another document that I believe is of great interest to both employers and employees, which is the regulations on the assessment of the levels of working completion. According to the provisions of the Labor Code 2019, the employers have the right to unilaterally terminate the labor contract in case the employees regularly fail to fulfill their contractual obligations. However, to do this, the employers shall first develop and issue the criteria for assessment of employees’ fulfillment of duties.
However, the current law does not provide any specific guidelines or legal regulations for reference in establishing this document, which creates many difficulties for enterprises.
Host
As Mr. Thai just shared, implementing the right to unilaterally terminate labor contracts for employees who regularly fail to complete their work is a big challenge for employers.
Based on our experience in supporting clients in similar cases, as well as the perspectives of competent authorities in the relevant guidelines, when establishing regulations on the assessment of the levels of working completion, the employers need to especially pay attention and ensure the following: first, specific performance evaluation criteria for each position, title, department, and unit; second, the specific tasks of the employees according to their labor contracts, job descriptions, or task assignment notifications; third, measurable performance indicators, also known as KPIs; and finally, the process and methods for evaluating the employees’ performance.
Guest
And as other documents, employers need to ensure the issuance process system according to the provisions of law to ensure the effectiveness of the regulations on the assessment of the levels of working completion. Accordingly, the employers shall consult with the representative organization of employees at the workplace where such an organization exists and conduct dialogues in accordance with current legal regulations and the democracy regulations before issuing regulations on the assessment of the levels of working completion.
Host
Thank you, Mr. Thai. I believe that this helpful discussion of the 05 internal labor documents has provided listeners with a comprehensive overview of the relevant legal regulations related to implementing labor relationships.
If you have any questions or concerns, please leave a comment below. Or for more information about BLawyers Vietnam, feel free to visit our website linked below the podcast screen of The Lawyers Talk.
Guest
Thank you, dear listeners, for your attention.
Goodbye, and see you again.
The above is not official advice from BLawyers Vietnam. If you have any questions or suggestions about the above, please contact us at info@blawyersvn.com. BLawyers Vietnam would love to hear from you.
Date: 29 October 2024
