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On October 01st, 2015, the Government issued Decree No. 85/2015/ND-CP (“Decree No. 85”) detailing some regulations of the Labor Code regarding policies for female employees.

To facilitate your search, PLF has summarized the main points of Decree No. 85 as below:

1. Clarifying the concept of employers hiring many female employees

Under current regulations, the Government shall have a tax reduction policy applied to employers hiring many female employees; however, the definition of employers hiring many female employees has yet to be clarified.

Clause 1 of Article 3 of Decree No. 85 has introduced the concept of employers employing many female employees, specifically:

• Employing from 10 to 100 female employees, accounting for over 50% of the total labor.
• Employing from 100 to 1,000 female employees, accounting for over 30% of the total labor.
• Employing over 1,000 female employees.

2. Representatives of female employees

In Article 4 of Decree No. 85, representatives of female employees in provisions related to employer’s obligations in the 2012 Labour Code are construed as:

• The base union, in case a labor union has been established.
• The immediate superior base union if requested by the female employees, in case no union has been established. If there is no request, the employer will obtain the opinion of over 50% of the female employees at the enterprise.

3. Health care for female employees

Female workers are entitled to obstetric examination according to the obstetric care category issued by the Ministry of Health during periodic health examinations.

In addition, female employees shall receive menstrual leave of 30 minutes per day and at least 3 days per month. The specific amount of time off is decided between the employees and employers regarding realistic working conditions and the needs of female employees.

Female employees raising a child under 12 months are entitled to a 60-minute break each day during working hours for breastfeeding, milking, storing milk and resting.

Female workers shall nevertheless get paid according to their labor contract despite the regulated amount of time off mentioned above.

4. The right of unilateral termination and temporary suspension of the labor contract

In case an authorized health establishment confirms that continuing work would negatively affect the unborn baby, the female worker has the right to:

• Unilaterally terminate the labor contract:
• Prior notice period: as assigned by the authorized health establishment.
• The notice shall be submitted together with the request of the authorized health establishment concerning how continuing work would negatively affect the fetus.
• Temporarily suspend the contract:
• Prior notice period: as assigned by the authorized health establishment
• The notice shall be submitted along with the request of the authorized health establishment concerning how continuing work would negatively affect the fetus.

The minimum duration of temporary suspension shall be the same as the temporary break assigned by the authorized health establishment. Without said assignment, the duration of temporary suspension shall be decided between the two parties.

5. Effect

Decree No. 85 shall come into effect from November 15th 2015.

This decree will replace Decree No. 23/CP dated 1996 by the Government guiding the 2012 Labor Code regarding specific provisions for female workers.

PLF recommends that Enterprises should promptly update and adjust company policies related to female employees (if any) under specific guidelines stated in Decree No. 85 mentioned above in order to avoid any labor disputes that might happen once this Decree comes into legal force.