1. ​Reprimand:

A reprimand is the lightest form of disciplinary action that an employer can apply to an employee who violates labor discipline. This is mainly a form of reminder for employees who commit a first-time but minor mistake. Reprimands are given in two forms: oral reprimands or written reprimands. However, regarding the form of disciplinary action against employees at the level of reprimand, it should be noted that the current labor law does not have specific regulations or instructions on which violations of labor discipline will be punished. Applying the disciplinary form of reprimand only states general principles to ensure the employer's autonomy. Therefore, employers need to have specific regulations in their unit's labor regulations on which violations of employees will be disciplined at the level of reprimand.

It can be seen that giving autonomy to employers in specifying violations at the level of reprimand in the unit's labor regulations helps employers have a clear basis to impose sanctions. Applying labor discipline is also a basis for employees to be more conscious in reviewing their own behaviors to adjust accordingly, ensuring compliance with labor regulations. Therefore, when developing labor regulations, depending on the actual operations of their unit, the unit needs to clearly state the corresponding violations for each form of disciplinary action. It is difficult for workers to discipline workers. Because, according to Clause 3, Article 127 of the 2019 Labor Code, one of the three actions that the law prohibits employers from doing when handling labor discipline is: "Handling labor discipline against employees There is a violation that is not specified in the internal labor regulations or not agreed upon in the signed labor contract or is not regulated by the labor law." In addition, according to current labor laws, labor regulations are only legally valid when registered. According to Article 121 of the 2019 Labor Code, labor regulations take effect after a period of 15 days from the date the provincial state labor management agency receives a valid application for registration of labor regulations according to regulations. determined. This is something that employers need to pay special attention to because currently there are many units that have internal labor regulations but are internal in nature and have not been properly registered according to regulations. This leads to the fact that if the employer disciplines and reprimands an employee who violates labor regulations (which have not been properly registered according to regulations), it is considered illegal.

2. Extend the salary increase period to no more than 6 months:

The form of labor discipline in the form of extending the salary increase period to no more than six months or dismissal is a form of disciplinary action applied to employees who commit more serious violations than the form of reprimand and violation. If the offense is lighter than the form of dismissal or there are violations of labor discipline as stipulated in the unit's internal labor regulations, the employer is not allowed to apply two penalties at the same time. The salary increase limit of no more than 6 months is sometimes not feasible for many reasons such as: (i) In fact, many employers, especially businesses, often avoid paying social insurance for employees. (employee) with a short-term labor contract (labor contract). Normally, employees must perform a labor contract for two or three years before they can receive a salary increase. Therefore, in cases of short-term labor contracts, this form of discipline is difficult to implement in practice. (ii) For employees working under fixed-term labor contracts, this form of discipline is also difficult to implement, because the maximum term of the contract is 36 months, but in reality, it usually takes 3 years for employees to receive a salary increase. times, then the term of the labor contract has expired. (iii) In addition, according to current labor laws, employers are not required to increase wages for employees, but salary regulations will be agreed upon in the labor contract, collective labor agreement or internal regulations. unit's department. Therefore, in case the employer does not have a salary increase regulation and the salary increase is not agreed in the labor contract or collective labor agreement, the employer cannot apply this form of disciplinary action to the employee. .

3. Demotion:

In fact, each employee's job is different and has different work requirements and responsibilities, so the law does not stipulate specifically and in detail which violations are subject to this form of discipline. Therefore, each enterprise should specify which violations are subject to this form of sanction in the internal labor regulations to disseminate to employees, increase deterrence and serve as a basis for applying this form of punishment. This penalty is imposed on employees whose behavior is proportionate.

4. Dismissal:

This is the most severe form of discipline among the forms of labor discipline that employers are entitled to apply when employees commit violations. The laws of most countries in the world recognize and have specific regulations on the disciplinary form of dismissal because dismissal is the most severe form of discipline applied by employers to employees who commit violations. The dismissal of an employee terminates the labor relationship between the employee and the employer, excluding that employee from the labor collective. The specific provisions in each country's law for this special form of discipline are to avoid cases where employers abuse their power and at the same time mitigate harmful consequences for fired employees. Vietnamese law also has specific regulations on cases where employers have the right to fire employees. According to the provisions of Article 125 of the Labor Code 2019, the disciplinary form of dismissal is applied by employers in the following cases:

– Pursuant to the Labor Code 2019:

Employees commit acts of theft, embezzlement, gambling, intentionally causing injury, or using drugs at work; Employees who commit acts of disclosing business secrets or technological secrets, infringing on intellectual property rights of the employer, or committing acts of causing serious damage or threatening to cause particularly serious damage regarding the employer's property or interests or sexual harassment in the workplace is stipulated in the labor regulations [Article 125, Clause 1, 2]. This basis can be divided into two cases as follows:

+ In the first case, according to labor law, an employer can fire an employee based on violations such as "theft, embezzlement, gambling, intentional injury, and drug use." within the workplace, disclosing business secrets, technological secrets, or infringing on the employer's intellectual property rights" without having to rely on signs of damage, even if the damage is damage is of very small value. The law stipulated as above is reasonable because labor discipline is aimed at the awareness of employees and does not depend on the level of damage to the enterprise, thereby ensuring the sanctity of labor discipline. However, in reality there are still a number of other disciplinary violations where the law should allow employers to fire employees without considering the level of damage. Such strict regulations will not only ensure the property ownership rights of employers but also strengthen order and discipline in the enterprise.

+ In the second case, the employee commits an act that causes serious damage or threatens to cause particularly serious damage to the property and interests of the employer. Acts of causing serious damage or threatening to cause particularly serious damage are understood here first of all as violations of labor discipline. Employees who violate labor discipline will only be fired if the violation causes serious damage or threatens to cause serious damage to the employer's property and interests. Assets here include both tangible assets and intangible assets, benefits can be immediate benefits or long-term benefits, benefits attached to assets or not attached to assets. It can be the commercial image of the business, the business's reputation with customers, it can also be the business's production lines, equipment, etc. As for the severity of property damage, The benefits of the enterprise caused by violations are calculated according to the provisions of the internal labor regulations. Thus, according to this regulation, the determination of the level of serious damage or threat of serious damage as a basis for firing an employee will be determined by the employer in the internal labor regulations of their unit. However, what kind of damage is considered "serious damage" is currently not specifically explained by the law. According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 129 of the Labor Code 2019, regulations on compensation for damage, serious damage can be understood as when the employee causes damage with a value equal to or more than 10 months of the regional minimum wage announced by the Government to be applied. at the place where employees work. However, such a regulation does not seem to be completely reasonable for all businesses because this level of damage may be large for one business, but for another it is a very small number. If an employee only causes minor damage to the business, being fired will be very unfair to that employee. Therefore, the law needs to have specific guidance on this issue.

Besides, an issue that also needs to be raised here is which cases are determined to cause damage or threaten to damage the interests of the employer. Because the benefits here include both material benefits and mental benefits (for example, missed business cooperation opportunities and income that could have been earned are all considered legal benefits). ) but currently Vietnam's labor law does not specifically regulate this issue and that has caused significant problems for competent agencies in the practical application of the law.

– Pursuant to the Labor Code 2019:

Employees who are disciplined with an extended salary increase period or demotion but repeat the offense while the disciplinary action has not been removed. Recidivism is a case in which an employee repeats a violation that has been disciplined but has not yet had the disciplinary action removed according to the provisions of Article 126 of this Code [Article 125, Clause 3].

Recidivism is a case where an employee repeats a violation that has been disciplined but has not yet had the disciplinary action removed as prescribed in Article 126 of the 2019 Code. Recidivism is understood as a case where the labor discipline has not been removed again. commit the same mistake as previously committed. Thus, it can be understood that an employee who is being disciplined in the form of extending the salary increase period or demotion, while not yet being disciplined, commits the same violation that was previously violated and will be disciplined. dismissal.

However, the labor law does not provide additional provisions on the issue of recidivism of the same mistake. If the enterprise's labor regulations do not have regulations explaining this term, conflicts and disputes will easily arise within the company. disciplinary process between employers and employees. The same error may mean the same violation, or it may also be the same level of error. If understood as the same behavior, in many cases, while the employee is serving the disciplinary form, he commits another violation that causes more serious consequences and is still not considered a repeat offender. If understood as the same level of error, then in cases where there is the same level of error, that is, the same mistake is unintentional or intentional, it will be considered a repeat offense, but the previous time was unintentional and the next time was intentional, it is not considered a repeat offense. relapse. Furthermore, determining the level of fault (intentional or unintentional) of the employee is in fact a very difficult problem. Therefore, the above issue of disciplining and dismissing employees is extremely difficult and can easily give rise to conflicts.

– Pursuant to the 2019 Labor Code: “Employees voluntarily quit their job for 05 cumulative working days within 30 days from the first day of voluntarily quitting their job or 20 cumulative working days within 365 days from the first day of voluntarily quitting your job without a legitimate reason" [Article 125, Clause 4]. The legal way of calculating is to take time units based on months and calendar years. This is a case where an employee violates the obligation to comply with the enterprise's regulations on working hours. This violation often does not show specific consequences of the violation but has an impact on business operations. The reason the law stipulates that employers have the right to apply the disciplinary form of dismissal to employees' voluntary quitting is because of the negative impacts of this behavior on the operations of the enterprise. In the production structure and operations of an enterprise, each employee is an important link that creates a unified whole. Missing one link can affect the operation of the entire machine. In addition, when participating in labor relations, employees are obliged to strictly comply with the provisions of labor regulations in general and working hours and rest times in particular. Missing work for many days in a month or a year shows the employee's poor sense of compliance with labor discipline.

However, the disciplinary form of dismissal does not apply to all cases where an employee voluntarily quits work for 5 cumulative days in a month or 20 cumulative days in a year, but only applies to cases of leave. There is no legitimate reason. Regulations on legitimate reasons for cases of voluntary quitting work have been specified in Clause 4, Article 125 of the 2019 Labor Code, including: "Natural disasters, fires, illness of self or relative with confirmation from authorized medical examination and treatment facilities and other cases specified in the labor regulations.

To ensure fairness for employees, Clauses 4 and 5, Article 122 of the 2019 Labor Code stipulates a number of cases in which employees cannot be fired even though the employee has committed violations. This regulation will ensure the interests of businesses and limit the ability of employees to take advantage of violations of labor discipline. However, in reality, in some cases, employees can falsify documents to prove that they have a legitimate reason such as being sick, etc. because it is relatively easy to apply for a sick leave certificate from a medical facility. Thanks to that, after voluntarily quitting work beyond the prescribed time, the employee will legalize that leave with this document. Therefore, to thoroughly implement it, there needs to be unified and objective coordination between agencies and organizations and most importantly, the self-awareness of the employees themselves.