The term "sexual harassment" appeared as a Vietnamese
legal concept for the very first time in the Labor Code of 2012.
The 2012 legislation simply prohibited "maltreating employees
and committing sexual harassment in the workplace."1 While
the law did prohibit an employer and employee from committing acts
of sexual harassment in the workplace, it did nothing to define the
term, or provide measures for discipline. But, effective January 1,
2021, the new Labor Code ("LC" or
"Labor Code") came into force replacing
the 2012 Labor Code, and defined sexual harassment as "any
sexual act of a person against another person in the workplace
against the latter's will." 2
In parallel, Decree 145/2020/ND-CP ("Decree
145"), issued on December 14, 2020 defined sexual
harassment as "including both non-verbal harassment, through
body language or displays of sex or sexual activities either
directly, through media, or through suggestive actions, gestures,
and verbal comments." 3 The
