Brief introduction on Vietnam Labor Code

If you are planing to work in Vietnam in long terms, the first thing you need to do is to understand the basic principles of the 2012 Labor Code. 

As in many other countries, Vietnam 2012 Labor Code is the main legal document that regulated the labor relations including individual labor relations and collective labor relations.
In order to take an overview on the spirit of Vietnam Labor Code, basic principles of this Code is the most important thing to focus on. There are few principles that could be drawn from the Labor Code.

The principle on protecting the laborers.

This principle consists of the following matter such as guarantee that the laborers should have free choices of occupation, the wages, income, rest time and other statutory insurances should also be ensured.
Laborers are considered a weak side in comparision to the employers, therefore, protecting the laborers is a principle that should be seen in many provisions of this Code. In terms of protecting the rights of laborers, the role of trade union in Vietnam should always be mentioned. According to Vietnamese law, trade union should be the only organization that represents fro the workers, thus, the role of it to protect the rights of laborers is very significant. However, as it is mentioned in the Law on Trade Union, this organization is only established for Vietnamese workers only. This regulation has raised the question on the equality between Vietnamese workers and the workers from other nations who decided to work in Vietnam.

The principle on protecting the statutory rights of the employers.

As a role of a person who owns the production materials, the employers have the rights to be independent on selecting and hiring the suitable workers. Moreover, the employers also could maintain the labor discipline in order to guarantee for their possession.
As a role of person who is vital in solving the employment matters, the employers also have their representative organization. It is widely recognized as Vietnam Chambers of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). This organization is quite similar to trade union which was mentioned above.

The principle on combining the commercial policies and social policies.

The main purpose of this principle is to ensure that the laborers could have opportunities to approach to basic social policies of the government such as insurance policies or occupational accidents polices..as long as they could contribute to the society in terms of commerce.
The labor law in general should be the basis that other factors such as social ones or commercial ones could lean on that and operated in the most suitable ways.

The principle on respecting and complying the International Labor Law.

As an international principle- pacta sunt servanda, which means a nation must conscientiously perform every international commitments, Vietnam has an obligation to put any treaties relating to labor that Vietnam has approved into practice.
Furthermore, to some extent, some kinds of Convention that has not been approved by Vietnam is also respected and being studied in order to make the labor law in general become more and more effective.