What to Note When Signing Labour Contract with Foreign Workers? | ANT Lawyers

With the policy of opening the economy in Vietnam, not only Vietnam attracts investors to set up company, but also the demand for foreign workers in enterprises grows and diversifies. However, in order for Vietnam companies to be able to use foreign workers, they must sign a labor contract.

After meeting the conditions specified in the Labor Code on meeting the requirements for recruitment and working in Vietnam, the foreign worker working in Vietnam shall sign a labor contract before the expected date intend to work for the employer. In this contract, the employer and the foreign worker will agree on all issues arising in the process of working as well as using labor together.

Firstly, on the working position in the labor contract, it must show the correct position and position for which the employer has determined the needs with the competent authority and in accordance with the working position shown in the document and the work permits which have been granted to foreign workers.

Regarding the working time, it will normally be agreed upon by the two parties but must not exceed the number of working days (hours) as prescribed by Vietnamese law. The number of overtime hours must be based on voluntary work and must ensure rest time, rest during working time and weekends for foreign workers.

According to the provisions of the Labor Code, in addition to Vietnamese public holidays and New Year’s holidays, foreign workers are allowed to take one more day off for the national traditional New Year and one national day of the country. This is a humane regulation, respecting the national culture of Vietnam. Therefore, the employer needs to learn about the National Day and the traditional Tet holiday of foreign workers so that the employees can take leave in accordance with the provisions of the law.

Regarding the term of the labor contract, the term of the labor contract for foreigners is also governed by the duration of the work permit issued by the competent Vietnamese authority. Accordingly, the term of the labor contract for foreign workers working in Vietnam must not exceed the term of the work permit. Therefore, the employer should pay attention to conclude the contract term in accordance with regulations.

In addition, employers and foreign workers should be aware of the terms of disputes which could potentially arise. Because, contract terms are an important legal basis to resolve when a labor dispute arises, agreeing in advance on how to resolve a dispute when a dispute arises will create a clear legal foundation for easy settlement by both parties. Dispute lawyers are suggested to be consulted at an early stage to avoid dispute escalation.

At most, it is important that the employers and foreign workers need to pay attention and strictly comply with the provisions of the law so that the process of entering into and performing the contract is conducted smoothly and in compliance with the law in Vietnam.

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What to Note When Signing Labour Contract with Foreign Workers? | ANT Lawyers

With the policy of opening the economy in Vietnam, not only Vietnam attracts investors to set up company, but also the demand for foreign workers in enterprises grows and diversifies. However, in order for Vietnam companies to be able to use foreign workers, they must sign a labor contract.

After meeting the conditions specified in the Labor Code on meeting the requirements for recruitment and working in Vietnam, the foreign worker working in Vietnam shall sign a labor contract before the expected date intend to work for the employer. In this contract, the employer and the foreign worker will agree on all issues arising in the process of working as well as using labor together.

Firstly, on the working position in the labor contract, it must show the correct position and position for which the employer has determined the needs with the competent authority and in accordance with the working position shown in the document and the work permits which have been granted to foreign workers.

Regarding the working time, it will normally be agreed upon by the two parties but must not exceed the number of working days (hours) as prescribed by Vietnamese law. The number of overtime hours must be based on voluntary work and must ensure rest time, rest during working time and weekends for foreign workers.

According to the provisions of the Labor Code, in addition to Vietnamese public holidays and New Year’s holidays, foreign workers are allowed to take one more day off for the national traditional New Year and one national day of the country. This is a humane regulation, respecting the national culture of Vietnam. Therefore, the employer needs to learn about the National Day and the traditional Tet holiday of foreign workers so that the employees can take leave in accordance with the provisions of the law.

Regarding the term of the labor contract, the term of the labor contract for foreigners is also governed by the duration of the work permit issued by the competent Vietnamese authority. Accordingly, the term of the labor contract for foreign workers working in Vietnam must not exceed the term of the work permit. Therefore, the employer should pay attention to conclude the contract term in accordance with regulations.

In addition, employers and foreign workers should be aware of the terms of disputes which could potentially arise. Because, contract terms are an important legal basis to resolve when a labor dispute arises, agreeing in advance on how to resolve a dispute when a dispute arises will create a clear legal foundation for easy settlement by both parties. Dispute lawyers are suggested to be consulted at an early stage to avoid dispute escalation.

At most, it is important that the employers and foreign workers need to pay attention and strictly comply with the provisions of the law so that the process of entering into and performing the contract is conducted smoothly and in compliance with the law in Vietnam.

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How Foreigners Could Work in Vietnam Legally

Foreigners working in business set-up in Vietnam are expatriates which normally require a work permit in Vietnam.

As the Vietnam law’s restrictions encourage employment of local employees over foreign employees, normally, the employment of an expatriate is limited to a managerial position or to a position which Vietnamese employees are not yet qualified.

There are exemption of work permit in Vietnam as following cases:

A capital contributing member or owner of a limited liability company which is registered to operate in Vietnam;

A member of the Board of Management of a shareholding company which is registered to operate in Vietnam;

A chief of a representative office or of a project of an international organization or a non-governmental organization in Vietnam;

The foreigner enters Vietnam for less than three months to offer services;

The foreigner enters Vietnam to work for less than three months or to handle an emergency case and that cannot adequately be addressed within Vietnam;

A lawyer who has received a Certificate for the practice of law firms in Vietnam granted by the Ministry of Justice;

The foreigner is a student studying and working in Vietnam;

An intra-corporate transferee working in Vietnam;

The foreigner provides expert and technical consultancy services or undertakes other tasks with respect to research, formulation, evaluation, monitoring and assessment, management and implementation of a program or project using official development aid (“ODA”);

The foreigner has a media license issued by the MOFA;

The foreigner is appointed by a competent authority of a foreign country to teach at an international school which is managed by a foreign diplomatic office or an international organization in Vietnam;

The foreigner a volunteer;

The foreigner has a master’s degree or higher or similar qualifications and provides consultancy, teaching, or conducts scientific research at a university or vocational college for a period not exceeding thirty (30) days; or

The foreigner implements an international agreement signed by a Vietnamese government authority, a provincial body or a central socio-political organization.

In order for an expatriate to be exempted from a work permit, the employer must file an application with the provincial labor authority. Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee will be consulted and if approved, he/she will issue a written consent to each employer regarding the employment of expatriates.

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Cases that Foreigners Do Not Have to Apply for Work Permits

Pursuant to Decree No. 11/2016/ND-CP and 140/2018/NĐ-CP , the below cases of foreigner will not have to apply for work permit in Vietnam:

-As capital contributing members or the owner of a limited liability company.

-As member of the Managing Board of the joint stock company.

-As Head of the representative office, project of international organizations, non-governmental organizations in Vietnam.

-Entry into Vietnam for less than 03 months to carry out the service offering.

-Entry into Vietnam for less than 03 months to handle the incidents, technical situations and complicated technology arising that influence or threaten the production and business that Vietnam expert and foreign experts that currently in Vietnam cannot handle.

-As foreign lawyers that are licensed to practice law in Vietnam under the provisions of the Law on Lawyers.

-Under the provisions of the international treaties in which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member.

-As pupils and students studying in Vietnam and working in Vietnam but the employer must notify 07 days with state authorities on the provincial labor.

-Moving within the enterprises in the range of 11 service sectors in the service commitments of Vietnam to the World Trade Organization, including: business, communication, construction, distribution, education, environment, finance, health, tourism, culture and transport;

-Entry into Vietnam to provide advisory services and technical expertise or perform other tasks to serve the research, construction, appraisal, monitoring, evaluation, management and implementation of programs and projects funded with official development assistance (ODA) as prescribed or agreed in international treaties on ODA signed between the competent authorities of Vietnam and foreign countries;

-Granted the work permit on information and press in Vietnam by the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs in accordance with law;

-Sent to Vietnam by agencies and foreign organizations to teach and research in the international school under the jurisdiction of the foreign diplomatic representative agencies or international organizations in Vietnam or the Ministry of Education and Training certificate for teaching and researching in the educational and training institutions in Vietnam;

-Volunteers certified by the foreign diplomatic representative agencies or international organizations in Vietnam

-Entry into Vietnam working in the positions of professional, manager, executive or technical employees with working duration of less than 30 days and no more than 90 cumulative days in 01 years;

-Entry into Vietnam to implement international agreements that agencies and organizations at the central and province have signed as in accordance with law;

-Pupils and students studying in abroad schools and training institutions that have internship agreements in the agencies, organizations and enterprises in Vietnam;

-Relatives of members of foreign representatives in Vietnam working after licensed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, except the case where international treaties that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member that have other regulations;

-Have official passport to work for state agencies, political organizations and political – social organizations;

-Other cases decided by the Prime Minister on the proposal of the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs.

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The Valid Transfer Date of Member or Shareholder Rights of Buyer Arising from M&A

The specific time for transferring ownership rights of assets is very important in all contracts. This time affects the lawful rights and obligations of not only seller, purchaser but also of the third party.

The most-important principal of civil law is the recognition and respect of agreement between the related parties. It means that the parties may freely decide the specific time for transferring ownership rights. Nonetheless, in some special cases such as M&A contracts, the specific time is not under the decision of the parties.

In the legal term of Vietnam, M&A is deemed as similar to split-off, split-up, merger, acquisition of an enterprise, contributing capital to existing enterprise, and purchasing contributed capital of a member or shareholder of an existing enterprise.

When does the transfer of member or shareholder rights of buyers come into effect in cases of split-off, split-up, merger and consolidations, acquisition?

The Law on Enterprise 2014 provides the definition for each type as follows:

For splitting up enterprise:

“Article 192. Split-up

The splitted-up company shall cease to exist after the new companies are granted Enterprise Business Registration. The new companies are jointly responsible for the unpaid debts, labor contracts, and other liabilities of the splitted-up company, or reach an agreement with the creditors, customers, and employees to decide on one of the new companies to settle such obligations.”

For splitting off enterprise:

“Article 193. Split-off

After business registration, the splitted-off company and new companies are jointly responsible for the unpaid debts, labor contracts, and other liabilities of the splitted-off company, unless otherwise agreed among the splitted-off company, new companies, the splitted-off company’s creditors, customers, and employees.

For merger and consolidations of enterprise:

“Article 193. Consolidation

After business registration, the consolidated companies shall cease to exist; the new company shall take over the lawful rights and interests as well as unpaid debts, labor contract, and other liabilities of the consolidated companies.”

For acquisition of company:

“Article 195. Acquisition

Procedures for acquisition:

c) After business registration, the acquired companies shall cease to exist; the acquirer shall take over the lawful rights and interests as well as unpaid debts, employment contract, and other liabilities of the acquired companies.”

The above regulations of laws have determined the specific time for ceasing survival, transferring rights and obligations from old entities(ies) to new entities(ies) after split-off, split-up, merger and consolidations, acquisition. This time is specified after completing the legal procedures at competent state authorities.

After being granted an enterprise registration certificate or carrying out business adjustment and registration procedures, the new entity(ies) must (jointly) be responsible for: unpaid debts, labor contracts, and other liabilities, and the old entity(ies) will either cease to exist or still exist with a smaller or bigger business. Accordingly, although the buyer and the seller (called collectively the parties participating M&A) have signed a M&A contract which has been agreed to take effect before the completion of legal procedures at state authorities, the buyer has not had any legitimate right yet to the seller. The M&A contract is one of the necessary documents submitted to state authorities to proceed the next legal procedures.

When does the transfer of member or shareholder rights of a buyer come into effect in cases of contributing capital to existing enterprise, purchasing contributed capital of a member or shareholder of existing enterprise?

The purpose of M&A is to gain control and dominance rights of all or part of the seller, not merely owning part of the capital or shares of the enterprise as a normal investment activity. With these cases, no new entity is established and no old entity ceases to exist. The enterprise, after contributing capital or purchasing contributed capital, may have a change in the capital contribution ratio or keep it unchanged, but the information of members and shareholders of the enterprise shall be modified. The Law on Enterprise recognizes the rights of only members of limited liability companies and shareholders of joint stock companies but does not prescribe legal status before becoming a member or shareholder.

When is an investor recognized as a legitimate member, shareholder to get the rights and obligations that the law stipulates?

The contribution of sufficient capital as committed is not a decisive factor in being entitled the right of a member or shareholder. As well as notifying the competent authorities is uncertain to generate member and shareholder right. Nevertheless, the Enterprise Law has uniform provisions on this issue as follows:

For joint stock company:

Contributing capital:

“Article 124. Offering of shares to existing shareholders

In case the amount of offered shares are not completely purchased by shareholders and recipients the preemptive right, the Board of Directors is entitled to sell the remaining authorized shares to shareholders of the company or other people in a reasonable manner and conditions that are not more convenient than the conditions offered to shareholders, unless otherwise accepted by the General Meeting of Shareholders or shares are sold via a Stock Exchange.

Shares are considered as sold when they are fully paid and information about the purchaser mentioned in Article 121.2 hereof are fully written in the shareholder registration book; from this time, the purchaser shall be come a shareholder of the company.”

Purchasing contributed capital:

“Article 126. Share transfer

Recipients of shares in the cases mentioned in this Article shall only become the company’s shareholders from the day on which their information mentioned in Article 121.2 hereof are fully recorded in the shareholder registration book.”

For limited liability company:

Purchasing contributed capital:

“Article 53. Transferring contributed capital

The transferring member still has the rights and obligations to the company in proportion to his/her capital until information about the buy mentioned in Article 49.1.(b), (c) and (d) hereof is written on the member registration book.”

Accordingly, when the information of the buyer is recorded in a member/shareholder registration book, the buyer will officially have the legal rights for members and shareholders. The next legal procedures are intended to notify the competent authority and amend the enterprise registration certificate. The most important content of the registration book is the total amount of contributed capital of each member or shareholder. This is evidence for the ownership in limited liability companies and joint stock companies. For a limited liability company, both registration book and enterprise registration certificate are two proofs of ownership right of the member. However, for joint stock company, only the registration book is evidence on shareholder’s ownership rights. This is the reason for the important role of the registration book.

Depending on each M&A form, the buyer and the seller should attend to the time of termination and generation of legitimate rights and interests, obligations and responsibilities as members and shareholders. M&A aims to purchase and sell a special asset, which is property or capital of an enterprise. With the special assets, the regulation of laws may stipulate strictly depending on case by case which it is suggested the parties consult with a law firm in M&A in Vietnam to receive advice.

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How to Send Vietnamese Workers Working Abroad Under Contracts?

Decree No. 38/2020/ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the law on Vietnamese workers working abroad under contracts has been signed by the Government on April 3, 2020 takeing effect from May 20, 2020.

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This Decree prescribes the areas and jobs workers must not go to work abroad; licenses, conditions and procedures for the grant or replacement of licenses for provision of services to send workers abroad; deposits of service-providing enterprises sending laborers to work abroad; deposits, management and use of deposits of enterprises performing the intern labor contract. Specifically:

Up to seven jobs are not allowed to for Vietnamese workers to work abroad including: massaging in the restaurants, hotels or entertainment centers; the work must be in constant contact with explosives, toxic substances in the metallurgy of non-ferrous metals (copper, lead, mercury, silver and zinc), regular contact with manganese, mercury dioxide; the work must be in contact with open radioactive sources, exploiting radioactive ores of all kinds; the production and packaging must be in constant contact with the chemicals of nitric acid, sodium sulfate, carbon disulfide, pesticides, herbicides, rat poison, antiseptic, and anti-termite with strong toxicity; hunting for wild animals, crocodiles and sharks; regular work in places where there is lack of air, high pressure (underground, in the ocean); shrouding, burial corpses, cremating corpses, exhuming graves.

In addition, it is prohibited to send workers to war zones or areas at risk of war, areas where radiation is being contaminated, areas contaminated with poison or areas with particularly dangerous epidemics.

For service-providing enterprises sending laborers to work overseas, to set up company, and comply with the law, they must meet the following conditions among others: the legal capital is not lower than VND 5,000,000,000 (five billion Vietnam dong); having owners, all members and shareholders being domestic investors under the provisions of the Law on Investment 2014; having an operation plan to send workers to work abroad; having a specialized apparatus and material foundations to organize the training of necessary knowledge for workers before going to work abroad and activities of sending laborers to work abroad; deposit VND 1,000,000,000 (one billion Vietnam dong) at commercial banks licensed to operate in Vietnam.

The enterprise sending workers to work abroad upon the form of practice for skills improvement makes deposit to account at commercial bank. The level of deposit of an enterprise sending workers to work abroad upon the form of practice for skills improvement is equal to 10% of the ordinary flight ticket of one class at the time the enterprise deposits from the country where the employee works. The number of workers going to work abroad in Vietnam under the Contract of accepting internships has been registered.

In addition, this Decree also stipulates the conditions for activities of sending laborers to work in the territory of Taiwan (China), to practice skills in Japan and to work as domestic servants in the host country of Middle East region.

The interested individuals and organizations should pay attention to implement details of the regulation or seek lawyers in the labour management areas for consultation.

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