Increase penalties for administrative violations on labor and wages from January 17, 01

Decree 12/2022/ND-CP stipulating penalties for administrative violations in the field of labor, social insurance and Vietnamese workers working abroad under contracts is issued and takes effect. force from January 17, 01. Accordingly, there are notable contents as follows:

1. A fine of from 01 to 03 million dong for each violation, but not more than 75 million dong, for the employer who fails to carry out the procedures for certifying the payment of unemployment insurance for the employee to complete the application for unemployment insurance benefits.

The previous regulation was a fine from 500.000 VND to 01 million VND.

2. A fine of between VND 5 - 10 million (currently VND 2 - 5 million) shall be imposed on the employer who commits one of the following acts:

• Do not publicly announce at the workplace before implementation: salary scale, payroll; labor level; bonus regulations;
• Failing to consult the employee representative organization at the grassroots level for the place where there is a representative organization of employees at the grassroots when formulating the salary scale and salary table; labor norms; bonus regulations;
• Do not build salary scale, salary table or labor norms, does not apply the trial labor rate before officially promulgating;
• Failure to notify the salary statement or notifying the employee's salary list but not in accordance with regulations;
  No equal pay or gender discrimination for workers doing work of equal value (new regulation).

In addition, a fine of between 5 and 10 million dong also applies to newly regulated violations such as:

• No trial of labor norms before official promulgation;
• Failure to notify the salary statement or notifying the employee's salary list but not in accordance with regulations;
• Not paying equal wages or discriminating against employees who do work of equal value.

3. Increase 20 times the fine level of enterprises that do not allow female employees to take 30 minutes off on red light days.

Clause 2, Article 28 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP stipulates a fine of between VND 10-20 million for employers who commit acts of: 

“d) Female employees are not allowed to take a break of 30 minutes per day during menstruation unless otherwise agreed.

Thus, this fine has increased 20 times before, because at point b, clause 1, Article 27 of Decree 28/2020, the fine for this act is only from 500.000 VND to 01 million VND.

4. Disciplinary employees by fines and fines up to 40 million VND

Clause 3, Article 19 of Decree 12/2022 stipulates:

"3. A fine of between VND 20.000.000 and 40.000.000 shall be imposed on the employer when committing one of the following acts:

a) Infringing upon the health, honor, life, reputation or dignity of employees when handling labor discipline but not to the extent of criminal prosecution;

b) Using the form of fine or salary cut instead of handling labor discipline;

...

While according to the old regulations, only 10-15 million VND fine.

5. Heavy fines for enterprises from 1.000 female workers who do not have a milking room

"2. A fine ranging from VND 10.000.000 to VND 20.000.000 shall be imposed on the employer who commits one of the following acts:

...

k) Failing to provide sufficient information about the dangerous nature, risks and requirements of the job for employees to choose, and failing to ensure occupational safety and health conditions for employees as prescribed when using them to do jobs on the list of occupations and jobs that have adverse effects on reproductive function and child rearing;

l) Failing to install a room for expressing or storing breast milk at the workplace when employing 1.000 or more female workers.”

(According to Article 28 of Decree 12)

6. Sexual harassment at work, fine up to 30 million VND while the old regulations only required labor discipline in the form specified in the labor regulations for this behavior.

The above are some new fines for violations related to labor and social insurance according to Decree 12/2022/ND-CP, effective from January 17, 01.