Internal labour regulations in Vietnam

Who needs internal labour regulations in Vietnam?

Every employer with 10 or more employees must issue written internal labour regulations; below that threshold, written ILR are not compulsory, though the employer still needs rules it can point to before applying any discipline.1 Before issuing or revising the ILR, the employer must consult the grassroots employee-representative organisation where one exists — typically the company trade union (Labour Code 2019, Art. 118).1

Trigger

10 or more employees → written internal labour regulations are mandatory (Art. 118).1

Register within

10 days of issuance, with the provincial labour authority (Arts. 118–119).1

Take effect

15 days after the authority receives a complete dossier (Art. 121).1

For a foreign company, this is a question of headcount at the employing entity. If you hire through an employer of record, the ILR obligation sits with the registered entity that actually employs your staff — see how an employer of record employs your people in Vietnam and the wider framework in our guide to Vietnamese labour law and employment contracts, one of our Vietnam employer guides.

What must internal labour regulations cover?

The Labour Code lists the main contents the regulations must address. A compliant set of work rules covers, at minimum, each of the following (Labour Code 2019, Art. 118):1

• working hours and rest periods;
• order and conduct at the workplace;
• occupational safety and health — see occupational safety and health duties in Vietnam;
• measures to prevent and handle sexual harassment at work, and the procedure for dealing with it;
• protection of the employer's assets and of business and technological secrets and intellectual property;
• the cases in which an employee may be temporarily reassigned to other work;
• the acts that breach labour discipline and the forms of discipline that apply;
• material responsibility — compensation for damage caused by the employee;
• the person with authority to impose discipline.

The last three make the document load-bearing: an employer can discipline only for conduct the ILR has defined as a breach, so the drafting decides whether a later dismissal stands or falls. The rules must not be less favourable to employees than the law or an applicable collective agreement.

How are internal labour regulations registered?

Registration is a filing step, not a negotiation. The employer lodges the issued ILR with the provincial labour authority, and they then take effect on a fixed timetable rather than on the day they are signed.12

1. Draft and consult

   Prepare the written regulations covering the Art. 118 contents and consult the employee-representative organisation where one exists.1

2. Issue and file within 10 days

   Issue the regulations, then file the registration dossier with the provincial labour authority within 10 days (Arts. 118–119). Documents filed with Vietnamese authorities must be in Vietnamese or officially translated.1

3. Effective after 15 days

   The regulations take effect 15 days after the authority receives a complete dossier (Art. 121); keep the filing in your compliance records.1

Build the 10-day filing and 15-day effectiveness windows into your onboarding plan, alongside the other statutory deadlines in our Vietnam HR compliance calendar. The same timetable applies to any later revision of the rules.

Internal labour regulations vs an employee handbook vs a collective agreement

Three documents are easy to confuse. Internal labour regulations are the statutory work rules; an employee handbook is an internal company policy with no special legal status; and a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a negotiated agreement between the employer and the workforce. They sit in a clear order of priority, with the collective agreement setting a floor that the internal rules and individual contracts cannot undercut.

Why internal labour regulations underpin lawful discipline

This is the real reason the document is worth getting right. Labour discipline in Vietnam is limited to four measures — reprimand, deferment of a pay rise (up to six months), demotion, and dismissal; fining employees or docking wages as punishment is not allowed.1 Each measure can be applied only for conduct the internal labour regulations have defined as a breach: no registered rule, no lawful discipline.

Dismissal is the strictest case. It is allowed only on specific statutory grounds — for example theft or drug use at work, serious disclosure of trade secrets, or unexcused absence of 5 cumulative days in 30 days or 20 days in a year.1 Even then, the employer must follow a documented procedure anchored in the ILR, with the employee and the representative organisation involved. Get the rules or the procedure wrong and a dismissal can be found unlawful. For the detail, see the four permitted disciplinary measures and dismissal grounds, how this differs from lawfully terminating an employee and paying severance, and how discipline interacts with a probation period in Vietnam.

How EOR Vietnam handles internal labour regulations for you

When you hire through EOR Vietnam, your staff are employed by a Vietnam-registered entity, so the ILR obligation — and the registration, consultation and revision work behind it — sits with that entity rather than with you. Where its headcount triggers the 10-employee rule, it maintains registered internal labour regulations covering the Art. 118 contents and applies them as the basis for any discipline, so a later dismissal rests on a lawful, documented footing. We keep the registered rules, the employment contract and any applicable collective agreement aligned so they do not contradict each other.

This compliance work is included in the service, not billed as an extra. Our fee is a flat US$149 per employee per month for Vietnamese nationals — the same fee regardless of salary, seniority, role, location or headcount, as of October 2026; foreign nationals who need a work permit are quoted separately. There are no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees and no hidden fees, and gross salary and the statutory employer contributions are passed through at cost. See what an EOR costs in Vietnam, or request a costed EOR Vietnam quote.