Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan, Chairman of Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading Joint Stock Company (Ho Chi Minh City), said that before Tet, the company had recommended workers whose hometowns are in Gia Lai province or coming from Thanh Hoa province should not return to their hometown but stay in Ho Chi Minh City to enjoy Tet. In order to avoid the disadvantage of the employees, the company has returned the fees of train and car tickets to those who bought them in advance with the amount of nearly 400 million VND.

On the first day of work, the company required all employees to make medical declarations; those who are eligible to work immediately upon entering the factory had to take temperature measurements, wear masks, and wash hands.

For workers in the epidemic areas, after returning to work, Mr. Tuan said home quarantine for 14 days was required. In these cases, the company will pay the salaries of the quarantine days to those who return to their hometown during the Tet holiday with a reasonable excuse, and the ones without a reasonable excuse will not get paid.

Illustrative image (source: Internet)

Mr. Le Tran Thanh Hai, Trade Union Chairman of Triple Vietnam also said that the company now has about 90% of employees returning to work after Tet. The company is requiring all employees to make medical declarations.

“Although until now, there have been no cases of quarantine, but if any workers from an epidemic area have to be quarantined to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic, the company will negotiate about the salaries during these days.”, Mr. Hai said.

The leader of the Department of Industrial Relations and Wages (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) said, according to Article 99 of the Labor Code 2019, effective from January 1, 2021, the regulation on suspension pay, in case the suspension is caused by a natural disaster, fire, major epidemic, hostility, relocation requested by a competent authority, or for economic reasons, both parties shall negotiate the suspension pay, etc.

Accordingly, if the suspension is at the employer’s fault, the employee shall be paid the full salary under the employment contract; but if the suspension is at the employee’s fault, the employee shall not receive the salary.

In case the suspension is due to concentrated isolation at the request of the competent authority, the salary of the employee during suspension will be negotiated as follows:

If the suspension does not exceed 14 working days, the salary shall not fall below the statutory minimum wages;

If the suspension is longer than 14 working days, the salary shall be negotiated by both parties and the salary for the first 14 days must not fall below the statutory minimum wages./.