Vietnam – Criminal Liabilities For Wrongful Dismissal Of Employees.

13 April, 2018

 

Under the Labour Code, enterprises that are found to have wrongfully dismissed or terminated employees are subject to several civil liabilities, including monetary compensation or an obligation to rehire such employees. Effective from 1 January 2018, such violations may also expose the legal representatives of enterprises to criminal liabilities under the Penal Code 2015, as amended in 2017.

 

According to the law, if the legal representative of an enterprise dismisses an employee over private interests or for personal reasons, they will be subject to a fine of VND 10 million to VND 100 million (c. USD 441 to USD 4,441) and subject to a suspended sentence of up to one year, or imprisonment for three months to one year.

 

Any cases of wrongful dismissal from employment which involves the dismissal of two or more people, a pregnant woman, those raising children under 12 months of age or those who later commit suicide as a result of the dismissal, or dismissals causing very serious consequences or other extremely serious consequences*, will attract a fine of VND 100 million to VND 200 million (c. USD 4,410 to USD 8,882) or imprisonment for one year to three years. 

 

*as of the time of the publication of this update, there has been no official guidance as to what would constitute “very serious” or “extremely serious” consequences.