1. What measures have been put in place to protect employees or
avoid redundancies during the coronavirus pandemic?
To set the scene, Vietnam's current Labour Code was
finalised on 20 November 2019 – a month before COVID-19
started in China – and took effect from 1 January 2021. For
this reason, the Labour Code does not contain provisions to address
the labour issues which have arisen due to the pandemic.
It is also worth noting that Vietnam's labour regulations
tend to favour the rights of employees over their employers. With
this pro-employee principle in mind, the Labour Code offers various
legal measures and tools to safeguard the legitimate rights and
benefits of workers. These measures remained in force during the
pandemic. In general, an employer cannot use the pandemic as a
justification for mass redundancies without the consent of the
staff in question or without reporting to the labour authorities.
Below are some of the main strategies that an employer can
