The employee must pay compensation if the labor contract is terminated under the provisions of law.

Lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha - Director of the Trade Union Law Consultancy Center (Provincial Confederation of Labor) advises legal to employees.

According to lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha, Director of the Trade Union Law Consulting Center (Provincial Confederation of Labor), in order to avoid losing benefits when unilaterally breaking a labor contract, the employee must notify the employer for the required period of time. However, there are some situations that is legal for an employee to unilaterally terminate a labor contract without notice.

Before leaving, the employee must inform the employer.

Ms. Le Thi Tham (living in Trung Dung ward, Bien Hoa city) feels that her job as an industrial garment worker is not good for her health, despite the fact that the company has signed a 12-month labor contract with her. As a result, after four months of work, she decided to quit to find a new job that would be safer for her health, but she was afraid that the employer would not agree. Therefore, Ms. Tham came to the Provincial Trade Union Legal Consultancy Center to take advice from lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha.

According to lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha, because she is not in the case where the employee has the right to unilaterally terminate the labor contract without prior notice under Clause 2, Article 35 of the 2019 Labor Code. So before she left, she must comply with the time to notify the employer under Clause 1, Article 35 of this Code. When she failed to comply with this provision, it means she terminated the labor contract illegally, and she is no longer protected by the law.

Lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha said that, according to the labor law, the employee has the right to unilaterally terminate the labor contract but must notify the employer at least 45 days if working under an indefinite term labor contract; at least 30 days if working under a labor contract with a term of 12-36 months; and at least 3 working days if working under a labor contract with a term of fewer than 12 months.

For those sectors, occupations, and jobs such as: Flight Crew members; aircraft maintenance technical staff, repair personnel; flight dispatching and operation personnel; enterprise managers in accordance with the provisions of the Enterprise Law, the Law on Management and Use of State Capital to invest in production and business in enterprises; crew members working on Vietnamese vessels operating overseas; If a crew member is re-hired by a Vietnamese company to work on a foreign seagoing vessel, the notice period must be at least 120 days for an indefinite term or a fixed-term labor contract of 12 months or longer; at least equal to 1/4 of the term of a labor contract less than 12 months.

"Employees have the right to unilaterally terminate the labor contract without prior notice under the following circumstances: not being arranged according to the right job, working place, or not guaranteed working conditions as agreed; not being paid in full or on time; being abused, beaten, or having insulting words, behavior, acts affecting health, dignity, and honor; forced labor; sexual harassment in the workplace; employers provide misinformation that affects the implementation of labor contracts..." - lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha stated.

Understand the labor law properly

During advice and legal support to workers, lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha found that, due to a lack of grasp and understanding of labor laws, many employees believe that the law only applies to employers and businesses when arbitrarily terminating illegal labor contracts because they are the boss and rich, while workers do not because they are poor, especially employees who have just worked for a few months, outside the province, and ethnic minorities.

For example, Employee named P.V.B. (Tra Vinh province), D.K (Choro ethnic community, Phu An commune, Tan Phu District) who arbitrarily terminated the labor contract illegally (in case of prior notice but not notifying, self-leaved) must compensate for training expenses for the company, and didn't receive half a month's severance allowance.

In 2020, the Lawyers' Association in Bien Hoa City has advised and legally assisted on labor for more than 100 cases, there are approximately 10 cases of labor contracts being terminated illegally, so the company and employers do not pay severance allowance and required to compensate labor contracts.

According to lawyer Pham Dinh Duc (Bien Hoa City Lawyers' Association), when the employee unilaterally terminates a labor contract, they are not only not received severance allowance, but they must also compensate for half a month's salary under the labor contract and an amount equivalent to the salary under the labor contract in the days without notice. At the same time, the law requires employees to compensate employers for training expenses such as improve technical skills, apprentice assistance and salary, social insurance premiums, health insurance, and unemployment insurance for apprentice during training. If employees were training overseas, the training costs also include travel expenses, living expenses during the training time,....

While the protocol to notify before the termination of a labor contract is clear, there is also a part of the workers who do not cooperate and take it lightly. So, when the employer is fired for breaking the labor contract, the employee lost their rights and must be compensated for funds," lawyer Pham Dinh Duc said.

Nhan Thai

According to lawyer Vu Ngoc Ha, Director of the Trade Union Law Consulting Center (Provincial Confederation of Labour), the labor contract is the legal foundation for the arising of personal labor relations between the employee and the employer. Since signing a labor contract, the rights and commitments agreed to by the parties are legally binding on each party. When discussing the detail of the labor contract, each party has the right to freely negotiate according to the prescribed legal scope, meaning that when the labor contract has signed, both the employee and the employer must comply with the terms of labor law and the agreements in the labor contract. As a result, after executing the labor contract, if the employee unilaterally terminates the labor contract, they must be obligated to pay the loss proportional to the extent of the violation.