Internal labour regulations are documents issued by employers that record contents of labour discipline, including regulations on compliance with time, technology, production and business management.
1. The definition of internal labour regulations
The Labour Code 2019 does not stipulate the definition of the internal labour regulations of an enterprise. However, based on the statutory main contents of internal labour regulations under Article 118.2 of the Labour Code 2019, it can be understood that internal labour regulations are rules and procedures for work, which are issued by the enterprise and are followed by employees, and disciplinary responsibilities which employees must be charged if they break the rules and procedures so that the enterprise can control activities of production and business safely and effectively.
According to the Labour Code 2019, internal labour regulations have the following characteristics: (i) having a form of a document or other forms depending on a number of the enterprise’s employees; (ii) having statutory essential contents; (iii) other contents do not breach laws; (iv) the document of internal labour regulations must be registered at a competent state authority; and (v) being one of the grounds for the enterprise to take employees under disciplinary and material responsibilities during their employment at the enterprise.
2. Order of issuance of internal labour regulations
According to the regulations of the employment laws, employers must issue internal labour regulations. If employing 10 or more employees, employers must issue the internal labour regulations in writing and carry out the procedures for registration of the internal labour regulations with a competent labour-specialising management agency of the Provincial People’s Committee for the internal labour regulations to be valid.
Employers who employ under 10 employees have two choices. Firstly, employers will issue the internal labour regulations in writing, but they are not required to register the internal labour regulations and the internal labour regulations are valid according to the decision therein. In practice, this is the option that should be prioritised to help employers build a system of labour discipline applied in their enterprises. Secondly, employers do not issue the internal labour regulations in writing but must incorporate contents of labour discipline in the labour contract for their implementation. At that time, the effect of this labour discipline will be based on the agreement of the parties in the labour contract. Before promulgating internal labour regulations, or amending and supplementing the internal labour regulations, employers must consult grassroots representative organisations of employees (if any) over this issue. In addition, no employees can be disciplined for violating internal labour regulations without even knowing that it is a violation. Thus, the internal labour regulations must be notified to all employees in writing and the main contents of the internal labour regulations must be posted at needed places in the workplace.
For more details on the template of internal labour regulations, please refer to the book “Hard to find templates of Human Resource Relating to Labour Law” by Lawyer Nguyen Huu Phuoc on page 475.
Above is an overview of consulting about internal labour regulations. If you have trouble with finding a law firm providing legal assistance regarding consulting about internal labour regulations, please do not hesitate to contact us: please contact us: Phuoc & Partners is a professional consulting firm established in Vietnam and currently has nearly 100 members working in three offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang. Phuoc & Partners is also rated as one of the leading consulting firms specializing in business law in Vietnam that has leading practice areas in the legal market such as Intellectual Property, Labour and Employment, Taxation, Merger and acquisition, Litigation. We are confident in providing Clients with optimal and effective legal service.
