Lawyer Tran Phi Dai - Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association - said that according to current legal regulations, when handling labor discipline, employers (NSDLĐ) must prove the fault of the employee (NLĐ) and must have the participation of the employee representative organization at the grassroots level (currently the grassroots Trade Union) of which the employee is being disciplined as a member.
The law also stipulates that employees must be present at the meeting to consider labor discipline and have the right to self-defense, ask lawyers or employee representative organizations to defend. In case employees are under 15 years old, there must be the participation of a legal representative. The handling of labor discipline must be recorded in minutes.
Also according to lawyer Dai, employers are not allowed to apply multiple forms of labor discipline to one act of violating labor discipline. If employees simultaneously have multiple acts of violating labor discipline, only the highest disciplinary form corresponding to the most serious violation is applied.
Lawyer Dai noted that the law also restricts the right of employers to handle labor discipline in some cases. Specifically, employers are not allowed to handle labor discipline when employees are on sick leave or recuperation leave; Taking leave with the consent of employers; Being in temporary detention or imprisonment; Waiting for the results of competent authorities to investigate, verify and conclude cases where employees have acts of theft, embezzlement, gambling, intentional injury, drug use at work or employees have acts of disclosing business secrets, technological secrets, infringing on the intellectual property rights of employers, having acts causing serious damage or threatening to cause particularly serious damage to the property and interests of employers or sexual harassment at work as prescribed in labor regulations.
In particular, employers are not allowed to discipline female employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave, raising children under 12 months old. The law stipulates that this is very humane to ensure that employees have jobs and wages to care for the fetus and children," lawyer Dai said and added that the law also stipulates that employers are not allowed to discipline employees who violate labor discipline while suffering from mental illness or another illness that causes loss of cognitive ability or ability to control their behavior.
Along with that, employers are also strictly prohibited from performing the following acts when handling labor discipline: Infringing upon the health, honor, life, prestige, and dignity of employees; Fining and cutting salaries instead of handling labor discipline; Handling labor discipline for employees who have violations not specified in the internal labor regulations or not agreed upon in the signed labor contract or labor law does not have regulations.
