Answer:
Upon taking annual leave, if the Employee spends any time travelling by long-distance vehicle, that period may be considered for addition to the annual leave as agreed in the LC.
1. Conditions for the travel time to be added
The travel time will be added to the Employee’ annual leave (apart from fully paid annual leave days to which the Employee is entitled as agreed upon) when fully satisfying the following conditions[1]:
a. The Employee uses one of such means of road, rail or waterway to go to and return during annual leave. As such, means of air transport will not be subject to this regulation;
b. The number of round-trip travel days must be over 02 days. Accordingly, the travel time added to the annual leave is only counted from the 3rd day onwards. It is of note that the said calculation of travel time does not exclude weekends, public holidays and other paid leave days. In fact, in order to ensure accuracy and fairness, the Employer often requires the Employee to provide proof of his or her travel (e.g. car tickets, train tickets); and
c. The inclusion of travel time in annual leave will be applied to only one annual leave. Generally, annual leave schedule will be made in the calendar year, specifically from January 1 to December 31 of the corresponding year (there are also many the enterprise that arranges for annual leave to be taken in the fiscal year), and accordingly, an Employee’s days of travel time will be added to annual leave days with regard to vacation in that year.
For example: Company X stipulates the annual leave of the Employee to be calculated according to the financial year of the Company from April 1 to March 31 of the following year. In the year 2021, the Company’s Tet holidays are scheduled from 10/02/2021 to 16/02/2018. Accordingly, Employee A applies for taking annual leave on 8 and 9/02/2021 to return home in Nghe An to celebrate Tet. As planned, Employee A will travel by car, departing on 6/02/2018 (Saturday) and returning on 16/02/2021. The total round trip time is estimated to be 03 days, including weekends and public holidays.
Because: (i) during the vacation of 2020 (from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020), Company X has not yet calculated and applied the travel time to any annual leave of Employee A; and (ii) based on the tickets provided by Employee A, the round-trip travel time is over 02 days, thus Company X will add a 1-day travel time (calculated from the 3rd day onwards) to Employee A’s annual leave days.
2. Transportation costs and salary for travel days
Generally, the transportation costs and salary for travel days will be agreed upon between the Employer and the Employee[2]. When taking annual leave, the Employee is entitled to advance payment of at least an amount of money equal to the salary for the annual leave days. In which, such salary will be calculated on the basis of the salary stipulated in the LC at the time of taking annual leaves[3]
In addition, when the Employer pays the Employee train/car ticket costs and salary as prescribed above for his or her benefits, as a matter of law, it can be considered a reasonable cost for the Employer to deduct it from the corporate income tax. The Employer should clearly state the payment in the CLA. If there is no CLA, this should be stated in the LC or appendix to the LC.
[1]Article 111.4 of the Labour Code
[2]Article 67.1 of Decree 145/2020/ND-CP of the Government
[3] Article 67.2 of Decree 145/2020/ND-CP of the Government
