Vietnam
Labor administrative requirements and unemployment insurance changes
Impact date: 1 January 2026 A new law for the first time requires both employers and employees to register and update labor registration information when registering or adjusting information on employees’ social insurance (“SI”) participation. It also continues to stipulate the four unemployment insurance (“UI”) regimes similar to those under the current law, but more clearly defined, and expands the benefits for both employees and employers.
Employer implications/action needed Employers must collect employees’ mandatory information to perform the labor registration and to prepare and submit applications for expanded UI participant categories, including:
- persons working under indefinite-term employment contracts (“ECs”) or definite term ECs with a term of one month or more
- part-time employees working under the above-mentioned ECs with monthly salaries equal to or above the lowest salary level used as the basis for payment of compulsory SI contributions as stipulated by SI Law
- enterprise managers, controllers, representatives of capital contribution portions of enterprises as prescribed by law
Employer risk Non-compliance or inaccurate reporting of labor information may lead to penalties, inspections, or reputational damage. Employers who fail to contribute to UI must compensate workers directly for missed benefits.
Change to minimum regional wage at commune-level
Impact date: 1 January 2026 After the arrangement of administrative boundaries of provinces and centrally-run cities, the Government issued Decree 293/2025/ND-CP dated 10 November 2025 providing regulations on minimum wage levels for employees working under employment contracts. Specifically:
(a) regional monthly minimum wage: Region I: VND5,310,000, Region II: VND 4,730,000; Region III: VND 4,140,000; Region IV: VND 3,700,000
(b) hourly minimum wage: Region I: VND25,500/hour; Region II: VND 22,700; Region III: VND 20,000; Region IV: VND 17,800
Consequently, some areas might be subject to a new regional minimum wage level.
Employer implications/action needed If the employer is located in an area with a new regional minimum wage level, it must check and make necessary amendments to wages and scales contained in internal working rules, payroll, labor collective agreements (if any), and employment contracts, to ensure that all employees’ wages comply with the new region-based minimum wage.
Employer risk An employer paying their employees’ salaries which are lower than the statutory minimum wages announced by the Government may be subject to the following penalties:
- a fine ranging from VND 20,000,000 to VND 75,000,000 depending on the number of impacted employees
- remedial measure: Compelled payment to impacted employees of full salaries plus interest on late payments or insufficient payments of salary, which are calculated at the highest rate of the demand deposit interest rates publicly quoted by state-owned commercial banks on the date of penalty imposition
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Protection of personal data
Impact date: 1 January 2026 Under a new law aimed at protecting personal data in employment:
- information received by employers as part of recruitment processes must be necessary for the recruitment purposes, processed with applicants’ consent, and be deleted or destroyed where applicants are unsuccessful, unless otherwise agreed
- employers’ storage of their employees’ personal data on cloud computing services are exempt from conducting an impact assessment on the cross-border transfer of personal data
- an employee’s personal data must be deleted or destroyed upon termination of their employment contract, unless otherwise agreed or prescribed by law
- technological or technical measures collecting employees’ personal data processed for the purpose of employment management must be lawful and clearly disclosed to the employees
Employer implications/action needed Employers should review HR processes to ensure lawful data collection, including obtaining explicit employee consent where required, and preparing or updating data deletion protocols.
Employer risk The new law introduces strict compliance obligations and significant penalties. The maximum fine the unlawful cross-border transfer of personal data is 5% of the organization’s revenue in the preceding year, with exceptions. For other breaches, the maximum fine is VND 3,000,000,000.
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Electronic labor contracts
Impact date: 1 January 2026 (national platform mandatory for all E-LC users by 1 July 2026) A new Decree regulates Electronic Labor Contracts (E-LCs). While the use of E-LCs is encouraged to replace paper contracts, it remains voluntary. However, if parties choose to use E-LCs or convert paper contracts to electronic form, they must comply with strict standards regarding digital signatures, timestamps, and registration on the National Electronic Labor Contract Platform managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Employer implications/action needed In cases where E-LCs are utilized (including new signings or conversions from paper), employers must ensure the use of licensed e-contract service providers connected to the national platform. Within 24 hours of the final signature, the contract data must be submitted to the platform to receive a unique identification code (ID) for legal traceability.
Employer risk If choosing the electronic format, failure to use the national platform or using non-compliant methods (e.g., scanned PDFs) may result in the contract lacking legal validity or evidentiary value during disputes.
Guidance on unemployment insurance
Impact date: 1 January 2026 Detailed guidance has been provided for the Law on Employment regarding unemployment insurance (UI) (“Decree 374”). It introduces a 0% contribution incentive for employers hiring persons with disabilities for the first 12 months, establishes a clear three-month statute of limitations for employees to sue employers for insufficient UI contributions, and requires enterprises that increase or decrease their workforce by 50 or more employees to notify the change (previously, enterprises were responsible for notifying the employment service center in the locality where employer's headquarters is located when there was any change in the workforce at the enterprise).
Employer implications/action needed Enterprises should update payroll systems to reflect the new statutory UI contribution ceiling, which is capped at 20 times the regional minimum wage. Additionally, enterprises should account for the state-paid benefit cap (five times the regional minimum wage), as this benchmark now represents the employer's direct compensation liability in cases where they fail to contribute properly for a departing worker. Employers hiring disabled workers should register with the Social Insurance agency and provide valid certification to apply the 0% contribution incentive. If an employer increases or decreases their workforce by 50 or more employees, it must notify the public employment service organization where their workplace is located about the labour change using Form No. 33 issued with Decree 374.
Employer risk Non-contribution triggers a mandatory direct compensation liability for the full value of all missed benefits. Employees now have a legally defined three-month window from the date of contract termination to initiate litigation for UI-related grievances.
Licensing for employment service enterprises
Impact date: 1 January 2026 A new Decree simplifies the licensing of employment service enterprises, shifting primary authority to provincial-level People's Committees and shortening processing timelines. It also requires that service providers connect to the National Job Exchange Floor, a nationwide platform that centralizes state‑managed workforce data and job‑matching services.
Employer implications/action needed Employment service providers must submit results of consultations and job introductions semi-annually (by June 20) and annually (by December 20) using a statutory form via the National Job Exchange Floor.
Employer risk Employment service enterprises operating without a properly updated or authorized license under the new provincial-level framework may result in immediate suspension of services.
Regulations on guest workers
Impact date: 1 January 2026 A guest worker is a foreign national who is allowed to live and work temporarily in another country.
The law regulating guest workers has been updated. Key updates include:
- reducing the time for processing license for provision of Vietnamese guest worker service renewals from ten to seven working days
- simplifying requirements for professional staff by removing strict educational/experience mandates
- applying specific conditions for operating services to send Vietnamese workers to work in Taiwan and Japan and
- requiring online notification of worker lists and market condition fulfillment via the national database system
Employer implications/action needed Service enterprises must transition to online reporting of workers expected to be working abroad. Organizations sending workers to Japan or Taiwan must complete online notifications confirming that market-specific conditions are met before deployment.
Employer risk Failure to maintain operational conditions or provide accurate information may lead to license revocation.
Management of occupational diseases
Impact date: 15 February 2026 New regulatory guidance on the management of occupational diseases has been issued by the Ministry of Health.
It mandates:
(a) comprehensive health check-ups for employees before assigning jobs to them and before moving them to heavier, more hazardous or more dangerous occupations or jobs or when they return to work after having treatment of occupational accident injuries or diseases, except when their health has been examined by a Medical Council to assess their working capacity decrease and
(b) periodic detection check-ups for occupational diseases after six months of exposure
Employer implications/action needed Employers must arrange pre-placement health checks and ensure workers in strenuous or toxic roles receive detection examinations six months after commencement. Health checks must be carried out by licensed medical facilities with occupational‑medicine scope and those facilities must return results to employers within 20 days of the health check.
Employer risk Failing to organize pre-placement health checks or delayed reporting of occupational disease cases can lead to administrative fines and increased liability in the event of worker illness.
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