Answer:
A LC will be terminated due to its expiry except for the case of an Employee as a part-time trade union official still serving his or her trade union tenure. In such cases, the signed LC must be extended until the end of its tenure[1]. However, the foreign Employee who is not entitled to join Vietnamese trade unions will not fall into this exception.
Where the Employee is sick, encounter a labour accident or suffer an occupational disease, and is being treated or convalesced under the decision of a competent medical treatment and examination establishment, the Employer must not be entitled to unilaterally terminate the LC[2]. Nonetheless, this is the case of LC expiry rather than unilateral termination of LC as regulated in Article 38 of the Labour Code. Therefore, the LC expiry does not fall into one of the said prohibitions against the said unilateral termination of the LC.
Moreover, there have been not any related legal guiding documents on the extension of LC upon its expiry where a Vietnamese Employee or a foreign Employee is being under hospital treatment. Besides, in response to this issue, the MOLISA and the DOLISA of Ha Noi City comment that LCs will be terminated on its expiry date and will not be forced to extend its term due to the fact that the Employee is sick, encounter a labour accident or suffer occupational a disease in accordance with the Vietnamese law. Extensions of LC will absolutely depend on any agreement of the signing parties. In conclusion, the foreign Employee under hospital treatment will not affect the termination of his or her LC due to its expiry.
[1] Article 34.1 of the Labour Code
[2] Article 37.1 of the Labour Code
