Answer:
1. The Employer’s responsibilities upon the termination of the LC and the legal consequences in the event of the violation
1.1 The Employer’ responsibilities upon the termination of the LC
Upon termination of a definite-term LC, the Employer is obliged to notify the Employes in writing of the termination of the LC[1]. In addition, within 14 working days from the termination date of the LC, the Employer must fully pay all the amounts that the Employee is entitled to; in particular cases, this duration may be extended but no more than 30 days. At the same time, the Employer must also be responsible for completing verification procedures and returning the Employee’ social insurance book and other papers which the Employer is keeping[2].
1.2 Legal consequences for the Employer in case they violate the regulations on LC termination
Pursuant to the Labour Code, if the Employer does not perform the notification obligation and the Employee continues working without signing a new LC within 30 days from the LC termination date, the definite-term LC will become an indefinite-term LC[3].
2. What can the Employer do if the Employer does not want to sign s new LC with the Employee but wishes to let him or her work until a new Employee is recruited?
Upon termination of the LC, if the parties do not sign a new LC, the employment relationship will obviously terminate. As prescribed in Article 22.2 of the Labour Code, an appendix of the LC cannot amend the LC term. Therefore, if the Employer wants to keep the Employee work until they recruit a new Employee, the Employer must sign a new LC with the Employee with the term from the next day of the termination day upon the new Employee is recruited or sign a indefinite-term LC (if the parties entered into twice definite-term LCs), whether the Employer does not want to be administratively sanctioned up to VND4,000,000 for an entity when changing the LC term of more than once by using appendix to LC with the violation involves 01 – 10 Employees[4].
[1]Article 45.1 of the Labour Code
[2]Article 48.3 of the Labour Code
[3] Article 22.2 of the Labour Code
[4] Article 11.1 of Decree 28/2020/ND-CP dated 01/3/2020 of the Government
