Writer: Huy Nguyen
In an employment relation, both employees and employers wish to achieve their own interests. This leads to some difficulties to unify rights and obligations in the process of implementing labor relations.These opposing interests between employees and employers will become conflicts and disagreements if the two parties cannot reconcile. Therefore, labor disputes can be easily foreseeable. When legitimate rights and interests are breached, the parties often bring the dispute to court for settlement. So, what factors will affect the outcome of labor dispute settlement at the Court? Readers please read the following article.
- What are labor disputes
According to the law, a labor dispute means a dispute over rights, obligations and interests among the parties during the establishment, execution or termination of labor relation; a dispute between the representative organizations of employees; a dispute over a relationship that is directly relevant to the labor relation.
Types of labor disputes include:
- Labor disputes between the employee and the employer; between the employee and the organization that sends the employee to work overseas under a contract; between the dispatched employee and the client enterprise.
(ii) Right-based or interest-based collective labor disputes between one or several representative organizations of employees and the employer or one or several representative organizations of employees.
In particular, the labor contract is one of the grounds for arising labor relations and is the basis for resolving labor disputes.
- Factors will affect the outcome of labor dispute settlement at the Court
- Firstly, the legitimacy of the labor contract and other labor documents
On the basis of testimonies and documents provided by the parties, first of all, the Court will determine the legality of the labor contract and these documents.
- A labor contract is invalid when: (i) The entire contents of the employment contract are illegal; (ii) A person concludes the employment contract ultra vires or against the rules for employment contract; or (iii) The work described in the employment contract is prohibited by law;
- Besides, if the employee is a foreigner, the Court will consider whether such employee has a work permit issued by a competent authority before signing the labor contract to consider the legality of the labor contract.
- In addition, the judgment of the Court also depends on whether the Collective Labor Agreement, Internal Labor Regulations or other regulations of the Employer… comply with the labor law or not.
- Therefore, the labor contract and other documents are an important factor affecting the Court’s consideration and settlement of the dispute between the parties. When deeming that these documents violate the provisions of law, the Court will declare these documents invalid and the request of the parties may not be accepted.
- Secondly, the documents provided are not originals or legally notarized copies
In a general labor dispute, requesters are obligated to provide evidence. However, in some labor dispute cases, the requesting party has provided evidence to the Court such as an agreement between parties which are not original copies, uncertified copies or not compared with the originals by the procedure-conducting persons. As a result, the Court does not accept requesters’ request.
- Thirdly, the evidence provided are not objective
In some disputes, the employer provided the meeting minutes to the Court to prove that the termination of the labor contract was due to the employee’s self-declared resignation and the employer did not unilaterally terminate the labor contract illegally. However, these minutes that are with the signature of the employer but without signature of the employee are made after the date of the meeting with the employee for the purpose of confirming the content of the previous meeting. The employee did not accept the content of the meeting recorded in these minutes. Therefore, the Court did not recognize this record as evidence of the case because of the lack of objectivity. On that basis, the Court determined that the employer had unilaterally terminated the labor contract illegally.
- Fourthly, time limits for requesting settlement of labor disputes
According to the law, the time limit to bring an individual labor dispute to the Court is 01 year from the day on which a party discovers the act of infringement of their lawful rights and interests. The time limit to bring a right-based collective labor dispute to the Court is 01 year from the day on which a party discovers the act of infringement of their lawful rights.
Exceeding the above validity period, the parties are not entitled to request the Court to settle the dispute. Dispute settlement courts have the right to refuse or refuse to accept the settlement of labor disputes that have expired time limitations for requesting settlement. If the Court accepted for settlement, it is considered a violation of the law, labor dispute settlement results are not legally enforceable.
For further information, please contact:
Minh Ngo Nhat, Managing Partner, BLawyers
minh.ngo@blawyersvn.com
