May representative offices of foreign traders in Vietnam recruit Vietnamese Employees by themselves to work for them? If they are not allowed to do this, which state agencies must they contact? Must representative offices of foreign traders pay
recruitment fees to these state agencies?
As prescribed by law
[1], representative offices of
foreign traders in Vietnam (“
RO“) are not allowed to
recruit Vietnamese Employees by themselves, but have to work with competent
organisations which will recruit and manage Vietnamese Employees to work for
foreign organisations and individuals. Accordingly, the recruitment,
recommendation and management of Vietnamese Employees who work for ROs will be
done by organisations which are authorised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For instance, in Ho Chi Minh City, the organisation that is authorised by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs is One-Member Limited Liability Service Company to
Foreign Missions (FOSCO).
Recruitment fees for this service are not prescribed by law specifically. In
practice, the service fee charged by FOSCO for the recruitment and
recommendation of Vietnamese Employees to ROs is 20-30% of the first-month
salary for each Employee that they can recruit. Please note that this fee can
be changed by FOSCO from time to time.
- If these state agencies cannot recruit the qualified
Employees, may representative offices recruit Employees by themselves? How
long does it take for state agencies to recruit qualified Employees? If
representative offices are allowed to recruit Employees, must they
periodically report this issue to those state agencies?
Since the recruitment of Vietnamese Employees to work for ROs must be done
through an organisation authorised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROs must
comply with the following procedure when recruiting Vietnamese Employees
[2]:
- Step 1: When
ROs need to use Vietnamese Employees, they must send a written request for
recruiting Vietnamese Employees to the organisation competent in
recruiting and managing Vietnamese Employees. In the written request, they
must specify the positions, quantity, qualifications, professional duties,
foreign languages, and the time limit of recruitment; the rights, benefits
and obligations of Vietnamese Employees and ROs during the employment and
upon termination of each position;
- Step 2A:
Within 15 working days from the date of receipt of the written request,
the competent organisation is responsible for recruiting and recommending
Vietnamese Employees at the request of ROs;
- Step 2B: Upon
the expiry of this time limit, if the competent organisation cannot
recruit and recommend Vietnamese Employees to ROs, then ROs may recruit
Employees by themselves; and
- Step 3:
Within 7 working days of the signing date of LCs with Vietnamese
Employees, ROs must send a written notice together with the copies of the
signed LCs to the organisation competent in recruiting and managing
Vietnamese Employees.
As such, ROs may recruit Vietnamese Employees by themselves provided that
they have sent the written request (Step 1) but the organisation competent in
recruiting and managing Vietnamese Employees cannot recruit or recommend any
Employees within 15 working days after the date of receipt of the written
request.
Furthermore, ROs must submit reports in the form provided every 6 months and
annually (by June 10 and December 10) on the recruitment and use of Vietnamese
Employees to the organisation competent in recruiting and managing Vietnamese
Employees
[3]. Therefore, even where ROs are allowed to
recruit Employees as mentioned in Step 2B, they are still obliged to make
periodic reports on the recruitment and use of Vietnamese Employees to the
organisation authorised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[1] Articles 4.1 (a) and 4.2 (a) Decree 75/2014/ND-CP dated 28/7/2014
[2] Article 6 Decree 75/2014/NĐ-CP dated 28/7/2014.
[3] Article 8.3 Decree 75/2014/NĐ-CP and Article 5.1 (a) Circular 16/2015/TT-BLĐTBXH
