The internal labour regulations are the only internal code an FDI employer may use to impose discipline, so their quality directly decides whether every later disciplinary decision stands. Regulations hastily translated from a group template and missing statutory content groups make the plant’s entire discipline system practically unusable.
The nine content groups in Article 118(2)
Article 118(2) of the 2019 Labour Code lists the mandatory principal contents: working time and rest time; workplace order; occupational safety and hygiene; prevention of sexual harassment at work and the procedure for handling harassment; protection of assets and of business secrets, technology secrets and intellectual property; cases of temporary reassignment to other work; disciplinary violations and the corresponding sanctions; material responsibility; and the person competent to impose discipline.
Registration and when regulations take effect
An employer with ten or more employees must have written regulations. Under Article 119, within ten days of issuance the company must file for registration at the provincial labour authority where it is registered, and under Article 121 the regulations take effect 15 days after the authority receives a complete valid file, absent a contrary opinion. Discipline imposed under regulations not yet in effect is discipline without an effective basis.
Consequences of having no regulations
Having no regulations, failing to register, or using regulations not yet effective is fined under Article 25 of Decree 283/2026/ND-CP on discipline and material-responsibility violations. The heavier consequence is civil: every disciplinary decision, especially dismissal, is tested back against the regulations, and where the act or the matching sanction is missing, the decision is voided even if the misconduct truly happened.
Frequently Asked Questions
What contents are mandatory in an FDI company’s labour regulations?
The nine groups in Article 118(2) of the Labour Code, with the discipline core being the catalogue of violations with matching sanctions, material responsibility, and the person competent to impose discipline. Missing groups leave the regulations unregistrable and unusable.
What is the fine for not issuing regulations?
An employer with ten or more staff that lacks written regulations, fails to register them, or applies regulations not yet in effect is fined under Article 25 of Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, and every disciplinary decision on that footing risks invalidity.
Where must regulations be registered?
At the provincial labour authority where the company is business-registered, within ten days of issuance under Article 119. The regulations take effect 15 days after the authority receives the complete valid file.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council