Answer:
Pursuant to the labour law, the Employer and the Employee may agree to choose one of the following forms of salary: (i) cash; or (ii) transfer via the personal account of the Employee opened at banks[1].
On the other hand, according to the current foreign exchange law, cheques are defined as valuable papers drawn by any drawer who orders any drawee to deduct a certain amount from his payment account to pay to a beneficiary[2]. Therefore, cheques are considered a payment instrument rather than a payment method. In addition, the law also provides that valuable papers are the evidence confirming the obligation of debt repayment of the organisations issuing the valuable papers to owners such papers within a specific period with the condition for interest payment and other conditions[3]. Accordingly, valuable papers include stocks, bonds, bills of exchange, time bills, treasury bills, certificates of deposit, cheques, fund certificates, other valuable papers as prescribed by law, have cash value and are allowed to be traded. With the said regulations, cheques will not be considered as cash for use when paying salary to the Employee.
[1] Article 96.2 of the Labour Code
[2]Article 3.1 of Circular 22/2015/TT-NHNN dated 20/11//2015
[3]Article 3.1 of Circular 04/2016/TT-NHNN dated 15/04/2016
