Official Dispatch No. 1064/LDTBXH-QHLDTL of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalid and Social Affairs on instruction for work suspension wage payment and regime for the employee during work suspension related to Covid-19 pandemic

To:

Department of Labor, War Invalid and Social Affairs
of provinces and municipal cities

In recent time, due to the impact of Covid-19 epidemic, production and business of many enterprises have encountered difficulties, some enterprises have to suspend or narrow production, a number of employees have to stop working due to effects of the pandemic such as: (i) Foreign employee who are not allowed to return to the enterprise for work during the pandemic period in accordance with provisions; (ii) The employee must carry out quarantine at the request of the competent authority; (iii) employee has to suspend working due to the enterprise or the enterprise division cannot operate because other employees have not returned to work at the request of the competent authority; (iv) enterprises are facing difficulties due to pandemic affecting material sources and market operation leading to production narrowing and not having enough jobs for employee.

Depend on that actual situation, to implement wage regime during work suspension and other regimes of the employee in accordance with labor law provisions, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalid and SocialAffairssuggest that Department of Labor, War Invalid and Social Affairs at localities carry out the following actions:

1. Payment of work suspension wage to the employee shall base on regulation on Article 98 of the Labor Code to consider the reason of work suspension (due to the fault of the employer or the employee or due to objective reasons) so that determine the payment work suspension wage to the employee.

2. In case the employee have suspend working due to directly effect of Covid-19 pandemic such as: (i) Foreign employee who are not allowed to return to the enterprise for work during the pandemic period accordance with requirement of competent authority; (ii) the employee is in quarantine at the request of the competent authority; (iii) employee has to suspend working due to the enterprise or the enterprise division cannot operate because the enterprise owner or other employees of such enterprise or enterprise division are in quarantine or have not returned to work at the enterprise, the employee wage during the period of suspension shall comply with Clause 3, Article 98 of the Labor Code (the wage is agreed upon by the two parties but not lower than the regional minimum wage stipulated by the Government).

3. In case the enterprise encounter difficulties on material source and market operation which lead to shortness of work position to assign for employee, the employer can temporarily assign the employee to other work position than on the labor contract in accordance with provision of Article 31 of the Labor Code; if the duration of work suspension extend and affect to payment capacity of the enterprise, the employer and the employee can carry out agreement on temporary suspension of the labor contract as prescribed in Article 32 of the Labor Code; in case the enterprise has to narrow production scope, which lead to reduce of work, working position arrangement for enterprise shall be implement as prescribed in Article 38 or Article 44 of the Labor Code.

For other arising cases, the Department of Labor, War Invalid and Social Affairs shall base on each specific content and situation to give instruction for implementation in accordance with law provisions or report to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalid and Social for guidance and promptly solution./.

For the Minister

The Deputy Prime Minister

Le Van Thanh