Key consideration for drafting labor regulations in the enterprise

1. Principles and procedures for issuing labor regulations 

When participating in labor relations, employees (“EMPS”) are obliged to comply with internal labor regulations besides complying with labor laws. Internal labor regulations are documents issued by the employer (“ER”), stipulating the rules of conduct that employees are required to comply with when participating in labor relations, regulations regarding labor discipline, handling methods and material responsibilities. Internal labor regulations are not only necessary for the employer but also have practical meaning for the employees themselves. When employees clearly know their duties and anticipated sanctions, they will limit violations and contribute to improving labor productivity. 

According to the labor law, the internal labor regulations are issued by the ER after consulting with the internal representative organizations of EMPS at the establishment to ensure that the issuance of internal labor regulation complies with legal provisions. Labor regulations are required to be made in writing if 10 or more employees are employed. After the issuance, the internal labor regulations must be notified to all employees, and the main content must be posted in necessary places in the workplace. 

2. The content of the internal labor regulation  

Originating from the purpose of the internal labor regulations, it is the code of conduct that the ER sets and requires EMPS to follow. To avoid the case where ER abuses its position of setting strict regulations and infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of employees, according to Clause 2, Article 118 of the 2019 Labor Code, the content of labor regulations must not be against the labor law and related laws. Accordingly, the internal labor content includes the following main contents: 

• Working hours, reset periouds: The internal labor regulation stipulate the working hours of employees, clearly defining the normal working hours in a day and in a week, work shifts, and the start and end times of work shifts. Additionally, these regulations include provisions on overtime work (if any); overtime in special cases; break times outside of the inter-shift break; shift changes; weekly rest days; annual leave, personal leave, and unpaid leave, among others. 

These regulations help protect the rights and health of employees and establish a professional, orderly, and disciplined work environment. 

• Order at the workplace: Regulations on the scope of work, moving during working hours, conduct, dress code, and compliance with the assignments and directives of the ER.  Along with the provisions in (1), these regulations also contribute to establishing a disciplined and orderly work environment.

• Occupational safety and health: Ensuring occupational safety and hygiene is a crucial regulation that sets appropriate standards for EMPS and ER to comply with in order to minimize workplace accidents. Accordingly, labor regulations need to clearly define responsibilities for adhering to safety and health regulations, measures to ensure occupational safety and hygiene, fire prevention and control, prevention of workplace accidents and occupational diseases, compliance with safety procedures and standards, use and maintenance of personal protective equipment, safety and hygiene equipments at the workplace, and cleaning, detoxifying, and disinfecting the workplace. 

• Actions against sexual harassment in the workplace: Procedures for handling sexual harassment in the workplace: regulations on the procedures for addressing sexual harassment in the workplace to create a friendly working environment. 

• Protection of the assets and technological and business secrets and intellectual property of the employer:  Protecting assets, business secrets, technological secrets and intellectual property is an crucial obligation of the EMPS. Accordingly, when a labor relationship is established, the ER needs to stipulate a list of assets, documents, technological secrets, business secrets, intellectual property and responsibilities and measures to be applied to protect them. property, secrets; infringement of property and confidentiality. 

• Cases in which reassignment of employees is permitted:  For this point, enterprises need to correspond and specifically regulate cases where, due to production and business needs, they can temporarily transfer employees to work other than the prescribed labor contract. 

• Violations against labor regulations and disciplinary measures: This is important content and is the legal basis for disciplinary action when EMPS commit violations. Labor regulations need to be carefully drafted, specifying each type of violation as well as the corresponding level of violation; Labor discipline forms adapt to the characteristics of each violation without violating the provisions of law.

• Material responsibility: It is the EMPS’s responsibility to compensate for damages due to damaging tools, equipment or acts that cause property damage or loss of tools, equipment, assets, or excessive consumption of materials. Accordingly, labor regulations need to specifically stipulate materially responsible behavior and compensation levels corresponding to the level of damage and the person with authority to handle material responsibilities. 

• The person having the competence to take disciplinary measures: The internal labor regulation must specify the individuals authorized to enter into labor contracts on behalf of the ER, as well as those who have the authority to handle labor discipline. 

3. Registration of the internal labor regulation 

Registration of the internal labor regulation is a mandatory procedure for enterprises employing 10 or more employees when issuing workplace regulations. It is a condition for the workplace regulations to have legal effect. 

Internal labor regulation is the specific implementation of labor laws, reflecting the policies and regulations of each enterprise in labor management and disciplinary actions. It clearly defines the rights and obligations of both ER and EMPS. For enterprises required to register their workplace regulations, these must be registered with the labor authority under the provincial People’s Committee within 10 days from the issuance date. Reviewing and inspecting workplace regulations aims to enhance the employer’s responsibility for the content during drafting and prevent any provisions that may disadvantage employees.  

Developing and applying internal labor regulation is crucial for human resource management to prevent labor disputes. When preparing internal labor regulations, enterprises should adhere to proper procedures for issuance and registration (if required). Additionally, they must ensure the quality of the content to be practical and avoid overly theoretical or impractical provisions.  

Share: