The Government has just issued Decree No. 283 on regulations on sanctioning administrative violations in the fields of labor, social insurance, and Vietnamese workers going to work abroad under contracts.
Notably, in addition to the fine level, Decree 283 shows that employers in some cases also have to pay additional interest on violations to employees.
For acts of paying salaries not on time according to the provisions of law; not paying or not paying enough salaries to employees as agreed in the labor contract; not paying or not paying enough salaries for overtime, working at night; not paying or not paying enough salaries for work stoppage to employees according to the provisions of law..., employers will be fined from 5 to 50 million VND, depending on the number of affected employees.
If wages are paid to employees lower than the minimum wage prescribed by the Government, employers may be fined from 3 to 20 million VND.
The above-mentioned fines are for individuals, and the fine for organizations is double these levels.
In addition to being fined, employers also have to pay the remaining salary amount to employees, and at the same time pay additional interest on the amount of late payment or underpayment. This interest is calculated according to the highest demand deposit interest rate announced by state-owned commercial banks at the time of sanctioning.
The form of both monetary fines and forced payment of additional interest is also applied to some other violations. Such as the act of forcing employees to implement security measures in cash or other assets to implement labor contracts; not paying or not paying enough severance allowance, unemployment allowance or other amounts when unilaterally terminating labor contracts...
Employers must also pay additional interest in case they do not fully or indefinitely implement compensation and allowances for employees who have suffered labor accidents or occupational diseases; appropriate the compulsory social insurance benefits of employees and some other acts as prescribed.
This Decree takes effect from September 10.
The regulation requiring additional interest payment shows the principle that violators cannot only refund the money held by employees and then consider that the consequences have been remedied.
During the period when salary, allowance or social insurance benefits are delayed, employees have lost the opportunity to use their legitimate source of money.
The fine is paid to the budget, and the principal and interest are paid directly to the employee, thereby bringing the penalty back to the most important goal of restoring the rights of the affected person.
