WHAT TO CONSIDER ABOUT INTERNAL WORKING REGULATIONS IN LABOUR CODE 2019?

The Labour Code 2019 (“BLLĐ 2019”) requires enterprises, in the process of establishment and operation, which should have internal working regulations and have it registered with competent authorities. In the context that the Labour Code 2019 has amended quite a lot of contents related to employers’ and employees’ rights and obligations, the review and re-registration of the Internal Labour Regulations are one of the most essential processes.

Lac Duy & Associates analyzes some contents that employers and employees should pay attention to regarding internal labour regulations.

1. Which businesses need to register internal labour regulations?

According to the Labour Code 2019, all employers shall adopt internal labour regulations. For employers who have established the labour relations with 10 or more employees, this employee shall draft and promulgate internal labour regulations by text (Article 118.1 of the 2019 Labour Code and Article 69.1 of Decree No. 145/2020/ND-CP). For employers that establish labor relations with less than 10 employees, it is optional to promulgate internal labour regulations by text but should agree on the contents of labor discipline and material responsibilities in labor contracts.

Compared to Labour Code 2012, the Labour Code 2019 does not adjust, change related to enterprises who obliged to register Internal Labour regulations.

2. Contents should be adjusted in the internal labour regulations according to the Labour  Law 2019

Article 118.2 of the Labour Code 2019 provide that 3 (three) more contents that need to be added to the internal labour regulations are:

• Prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace; order, procedures for handling sexual harassment in the workplace;
• Cases in which employees are temporarily transferred employee to work other job compared to labour contracts: specifying cases in which production and business needs may be temporarily transferred employees to work other job compared to labor contracts as stipulated;
• Competent people who handle labor discipline.

Decree 145 specifically implements 03 (three) contents in Article 69. Therefore, businesses that has not implementated these contents in their internal labour regulations, they should quickly consider to amend and supplement in accordance with the current labor laws.

3. Does the application for internal labour regulations require any new additions?

• Article 120 of the 2019 Labour Code stipulates that the dossier includes the following types of documents:
  • Document request for registration of Internal labour regulations;
  • Internal labour regulations;
  • Written comments of the organization representing employees at the establishment against the place where the organization represents the employees at the establishment;
  • The employer’s documents have regulations related to labor discipline and material responsibility (if any).

Thus, the Labour Code 2019 does not require enterprises to present any other documents than the corresponding provisions of the Labour Code 2012. It should be noted that the Labour Code 2019 has changed the “trade union” to “organization which representing workers at work”. In fact, the Labour Code 2019 and the legal documents guiding the Labour Code 2019 also don’t promulgate the number of organizations that represent workers at the establishment allowed to be established in an enterprise. Therefore, when submitting the application for registration of internal labour regulations, the enterprise only needs to attach the written comments of an organization representing employees at the establishment, not necessarily attaching all the written comments.

In general, the Labour Code 2019 does not implement and modify many differences related to the subject matter and the application file for the internal labour regulations registration.

About the contents of the internal labour regulations, the Labour Code 2019 and the executable guiding documents under law related to the rights and interests of employees are amended in the Labour Law 2019.

Above is some information about the registration of labor regulations, in case of questions or need assistance related to internal labour regulations, drafting, reviewing, registering internal labour regulations, readers can contact Lac Duy&Associates to receive timely assistance at + 84 (28) 3622 1603 / Email:info@lacduy-associates.com or lacduy@lacduy-associates.com