Employees being quarantined at Government facilities

Vietnamese authorities require:

all persons who have been in direct and close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 patient (commonly referred in Vietnam as F1 Suspects) to be put into mandatory quarantined at Government facilities; and
all persons who have been in direct and close contact with a F1 Suspect to be self-quarantine at home (commonly referred in Vietnam as F2 Suspects).

The standard quarantine period is 14 days.

For F1 Suspect, there following options may be available:

the F1 Suspect and the employer could agree that the F1 Suspect will continue to work from the Government facility and to receive full salary;
the F1 Suspect can unilaterally take annual leave and continue to receive full salary;
the employer could unilaterally “suspend” (ngừng việc) the F1 Suspect’s work on the ground that the F1 Suspect cannot show up for work and to pay a salary at a lower rate which will be agreed by the parties and will not be lower than the applicable minimum wages. However, it is not clear if the employer can suspend the F1 Suspect and pay lower salary if the F1 Suspect exercises his/her option to take annual paid leave first; and
it appears that the employer may not be able to require the F1 Suspect from taking unpaid leave as per instruction by the Ministry of Labour, War invalid and Social Affairs (MOLISA) under Official Letter 1064 dated 25 March 2020.

Employees being self-quarantined at residence

For F2 Suspect, except in case of Essential Business Employers, the F2 Suspect could decide to work from home and to continue to receive full salary. This is because the Government has instructed most employers to arrange for their employees to work from home. A F2 Suspect working for Essential Business Employers subject to mandatory quarantine at home will have the same options as an F1 Suspect.

This post is written by Nguyen Hoang Duong and Nguyen Quang Vu.

Vietnam Business Law