Soon developing centralised, unified electronic labour contract platform

The Ministry of Home Affairs has drafted a Decree on the conclusion and implementation of electronic labour contracts (hereinafter referred to as the draft Decree) and is seeking public comment.

Difficulties in implementing conclusion and electronic labour contracts

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, a five-year review of the 2019 Labour Code shows that electronic labour contracts have brought many benefits to employees and employers, especially businesses with a large number of employees (greater flexibility of place and time for contract conclusion; savings in time, cost, and staffing for drafting, signing, managing, and storing files; improved business management and administration; stronger safety and security of labour contract information, etc.). This is a progressive provision, consistent with current trends in digital technology and meeting the inevitable requirements of a digital Government, digital economy, and digital society in the future.

However, the implementation of conclusion and electronic labour contracts has also faced a number of difficulties.

Specifically: (i) There are no detailed guidelines on amending, supplementing, and terminating electronic labour contracts; (ii) A lack of regulations on the conditions for validity of electronic labour contracts due to differences from the traditional paper form; (iii) Recognition of legal value, and the use of electronic labour contracts in transactions with third parties (tax authorities, social insurance, banks, etc.) remains problematic and limited, which partly affects demand among enterprises and employees for electronic labour contract signing.

Therefore, most enterprises propose that state management bodies issue detailed guidance on concluding and implementing electronic labour contracts so the provisions can be applied in a synchronous and convenient manner.

In addition, employers and local state management bodies are still reporting in the labour field mainly in writing (traditional administrative reports); central and local state management bodies on labour do not have a sectoral database on labour, labour relations, wages, and social insurance. Information and data on enterprises and employees are fragmented, not centralised, and lack inter-connection among state management bodies across sectors and fields. As a result, updating information, and monitoring and managing data on employers and employees to analyse changes in labour and wages remains difficult and limited.

Moreover, there are currently no official statistics of any state agency on electronic labour contracts. Some information obtained from technology firms providing electronic labour contract software indicates that about 21 technology enterprises are taking part in this field.

According to a report by an enterprise, its electronic labour contract software is serving 17,230 employers, providing more than 2.5 million labour contracts each month, with growth estimated at nearly 100% per year since 2021. This shows the rapid development of electronic labour contracts in recent times. However, the number of enterprises using electronic labour contracts and conducting transactions relating electronic labour contracts is still not commensurate with the scale of the current labour market in terms of employees and employers.

In the Vietnamese market, many technology enterprises provide software for concluding labour contracts (such as VNPT, FPT, Viettel, EFY, etc.), each with its own process depending on infrastructure conditions and technology platform, as commercialised software products. The information fields and functions of the above software do not adequately support users, especially state management bodies; they lack statistical reporting functions as well as tools for analysis, forecasting, and policy making.

In addition, these softwares do not support the management of electronic transactions on arising labour contracts nationwide; employers and employees who conclude electronic labour contracts by province/city are not supported and cannot connect to the National Population Database. They do not provide features to allow relevant organisations and individuals to look up electronic labour contracts with the consent of the contracting parties.

Thus, products on the market are IT softwares that provide services on the signing of labour contracts between employers and employees (mainly serving internal corporate administration). There has not been a centralised, unified electronic labour contract platform under state management that forms a labour contract database and connects to the National Database on Population, the National Database on Social Insurance, and other information systems as required for state management.

Under Government Resolution No. 71/NQ-CP on April 1, 2025, the Government assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs to build an electronic labour contract platform and complete its connection with Project 06. This requires regulations on the building, management, maintenance, exploitation, and use of information on the electronic labour contract platform; ensuring the ability to integrate, connect, interoperate and share information and data in line with the e-Government Architecture; and setting out the responsibilities of relevant agencies, organisations, units, and individuals in operating and managing the platform, especially connecting and sharing data among state management sectors and ministries to ensure effectiveness, sustainability, and information security in accordance with regulations. However, there are currently no specific regulations on these issues, so there is not enough legal basis to operate, exploit, and manage the platform in the near future.

Therefore, the construction of a Government Decree regulating the conclusion and implementation of electronic labour contracts is very necessary.

Ensuring data on electronic labour contracts on the platform are "accurate, sufficient, clean and live"

The draft Decree stipulates conclusion and implementation of electronic labour contracts, the electronic labour contract platform, and the building, management, maintenance, exploitation, and use of the electronic labour contract platform. The draft Decree consists of five chapters with 29 articles, with some key points.

On concluding and implementing electronic labour contracts, the draft Decree focuses on the following points.

Firstly, general principles are prescribed, including compliance with legal provisions on content (labour law) and on form (electronic transactions law), requirements on recognising the legal value of electronic labour contracts, and the maximum use of electronic labour contracts in practice.

Secondly, the subjects participating in the conclusion and implementation of electronic labour contracts are defined: employers and employees authorised to conclude labour contracts under Article 18 of the Labour Code (as conclusion of paper labour contracts), and an additional third subject of the provider of electronic labour contract software (eContract). This intermediary participates in the process of concluding and implementing labour contracts by supporting the method of conclusion, and providing software for the creation, digital signing, storage, retrieval, and management of electronic labour contracts.

Thirdly, conditions and methods for concluding labour contracts are stipulated. Accordingly, electronic labour contracts are concluded via eContract solution that meets all prescribed conditions; employers and employees use digital signatures issued by a legally authorised certification service provider to sign electronic labour contracts so that the signers can be identified, the signature is bound to the data content, is under the signers’ control at the time of signing, and any changes after signing can be detected — thereby ensuring the highest level of security and legal value.

In addition, the Decree requires that each labour contract must be attached with an Identification Code (ID) automatically issued by the platform to ensure uniqueness; this serves as the basis for retrieving, cross-checking, reporting, and inspecting information related to the labour contract on the platform.

Fourthly, the effective time of electronic labour contracts is regulated.

Under Articles 400 and 401 of the 2015 Civil Code, a lawfully concluded contract takes effect from the time of conclusion, unless the parties agree otherwise or relevant laws provide otherwise; the time of conclusion for a written contract is when the last party signs the document or expresses acceptance in another manner shown on the document.

On that basis, Article 23 of the 2019 Labour Code stipulates that a labour contract takes effect from the date the two parties conclude it, unless otherwise agreed by the parties or provided by law.

Compared with paper labour contracts, identifying the time of conclusion is more difficult in an electronic environment because data transmission among parties may mean signatures are not affixed at the same moment. Accordingly, to comply with rules on determining the effective time of labour contracts in general and to suit the characteristics of electronic labour contracts, the draft Decree stipulates that an electronic labour contract takes effect at the time the last party signs the electronic labour contract, unless the parties agree otherwise.

Fifthly, on amending, supplementing, suspending, and terminating electronic labour contracts.

During the contract implementation process, either or both parties may need to amend, supplement, suspend, or terminate an electronic labour contract, which requires the conclusion of electronic documents on such agreements.

To ensure the legal value of these electronic documents, the draft Decree prescribes methods and conditions in two cases: (i) The labour contract was originally concluded by electronic means; and (ii) The labour contract was originally concluded on paper but is amended, supplemented, suspended, or terminated through electronic means in the form of data messages.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, based on the Law on Electronic Transactions and its guiding documents (especially Decree No. 137/2024/ND-CP mentioned above and Decree No. 194/2025/ND-CP on July 3, 2025, detailedly stipulate certain provisions of the Law on Electronic Transactions on national databases, data connection and sharing, and open data for electronic transactions by state bodies), and other relevant laws, a legal framework is proposed for building, updating, maintaining, exploiting, and using the electronic labour contract platform with the following main contents:

Stipulating four principles for the building, updating, maintenance, exploitation, and use of the electronic labour contract platform, referring to the principles for the building, updating, maintenance, exploitation, and use of the national databases while reflecting the characteristics, nature, and operating model of the platform.

Identifying the Ministry of Home Affairs as the governing body of the platform and designating a unit under the ministry to manage and operate it, thereby clarifying authority and responsibility for future implementation.

Stipulating operations and requirements for building the platform with reference to the regulations for developing national databases, adapted to the characteristics, nature, and operating model of the platform.

Stipulating the collection, updating, and management of data on the platform, including specific regulations on the data to be collected and updated (five data groups), collection and update sources, and the Ministry of Home Affairs’ responsibility for ensuring accuracy, consistency, and completeness of data.

Stipulating five groups of shared services of the platform for agencies, organisations, and individuals to exploit and use for the purposes regulated for national databases under Decree No. 194/2025/ND-CP mentioned above.

Stipulating requirements for information systems when connecting and sharing data with the platform to ensure proper purposes, information security, and the protection of organisational and personal data in accordance with regulations.

Defining three groups of subjects authorised to exploit and use data and services on the platform, and the purposes for using the data on the platform, thereby attracting the interest and participation of agencies, organisations, enterprises, and individuals.

Stipulating methods for exploiting and using the date on the platform, including: (i) Through data services provided on the electronic labour contract platform; (ii) Through data connection and sharing between the electronic labour contract platform and national databases, and other related databases, and information systems; and (iii) Through written requests for information provision.

The draft Decree also regulates detailed responsibilities of ministries, sectors, and localities within their assigned functions; and stipulates the rights and responsibilities of service providers, employers, and employees to promote the conclusion and implementation of electronic labour contracts and to ensure the platform operates effectively, with electronic labour contract data on the platform guaranteed to be "accurate, sufficient, clean, and live".