Question 50: Is it right that if an Employee experiences a period of both working time and overtime including 10 hours or more, a statutory 30-minute break will be added to the said period of 10 working hours?

The Labor Code stipulates Employees continuously working for eight hours or six hours will be entitled to a break of at least 30 minutes, which is calculated as working time[1]. In cases where Employees must work for more than 10 hours a day including overtime hours, they will be entitled to another additional break of at least 30 minutes, which is also calculated as working time[2].

Under the said regulations, Employees continuously working for 10 hours will be entitled to a break of at least one hour, which is calculated as working time. As such, any break time will be included in the whole working period rather than added to the working time of any Employee. Subject to the regulations of each enterprise regarding the arrangement of rest periods for Employees in this case, the working time and rest period of a 10-hour working shift will be divided accordingly. Specifically, for a continuous working time of 10 hours, a one-hour break is the minimum time Employers must arrange for Employees to take it as prescribed by law. At that time, a ten-hour working time will include: (i) nine actual working hours; and (ii) one-hour break for Employees.


[1]Article 108.1 Labor Code

[2]Article 5.2 Decree 45/2013/NĐ-CP dated 10/ 05/2013