Do probationary workers have to pay social insurance?

Based on Clause 1, Article 24 of the Labor Code 2019, when there is an agreement on trial work, the employee and the employer can sign a trial contract or agree to include the trial content in the labor contract.

Depending on how the probationary agreement is recorded, the employer and the probationary employee may or may not be required to pay mandatory social insurance. Specifically:

Case 1: Sign a probationary contract

According to Clause 1, Article 2 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014, employees eligible to participate in compulsory social insurance include:

(1) Vietnamese employees working under labor contracts with indefinite terms, labor contracts with a term of 1 full month or more.

(2) Foreign workers working in Vietnam under an indefinite-term labor contract, a labor contract with a term of 1 year or more with an employer in Vietnam that has a work permit (or practice certificate/practice license) issued by a competent Vietnamese agency, except in case di transfer within the enterprise or have reached retirement age according to Vietnamese law.

Thus, compulsory social insurance participation only applies to employees who sign labor contracts, so in case of signing a probationary contract,Neither employees nor employers are required to pay social insurance.

Case 2: Agreement on probation content in the labor contract

At this time, the contents of the labor contract that the two parties enter into must comply with the provisions of Clause 1, Article 21 of the Labor Code 2019, including provisions on social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance.

In addition, Clause 3, Article 24 of the Labor Code 2019 also stipulates that probation does not apply to labor contracts with a term of less than 1 month. Therefore, once the two parties have agreed to write the probationary content in the labor contract, that labor contract must have a term of 1 full month or more.

By signing a labor contract of 1 month or more, probationary workers who are Vietnamese individuals will be eligible to participate in social insurance. At this time, both employers and employees must participate in compulsory social insurance, except for some special cases.