Annual leave in Vietnam is paid at the full contractual salary and starts at 12 working days a year for normal work, 14 for minors, employees with disabilities and heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs, and 16 for especially heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs, once the employee has worked 12 months for the same employer (Article 113(1) of the Labour Code). Every full 5 years with the same employer adds 1 day (Article 114). The employer, not the employee, sets the leave schedule after consulting staff (Article 113(4)), and the law requires payment for untaken days only when the employee leaves or loses the job (Article 113(3)).
We checked these rules against the consolidated Labour Code published in the Official Gazette on 28 February 2026, Articles 65 to 67 of Decree 145/2020/ND-CP (not amended at the time of writing) and the penalty Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, in force since 10 September 2026, which replaced Decree 12/2022/ND-CP.
Annual leave in Vietnam: five points that differ from many group policies#
- Working days, not calendar days. Weekly rest days and the 12 paid public holidays falling inside a leave period do not use up leave: 11 under Article 112(1), plus 24 November, Vietnam Culture Day, a day off on full pay under Article 2(1) of Resolution 28/2026/QH16 (in force 1 July 2026). Foreign employees get 2 extra holidays: 1 day for their own traditional New Year and 1 for their National Day (Article 112(2)).
- The employer schedules leave. Article 113(4) gives the employer the power to set the leave schedule, after consulting employees and giving advance notice. Employees may agree with the employer to split leave or to combine it, up to 3 years' leave at one time.
- No statutory "use it or lose it", and no statutory year-end cash-out. The Code is silent on expiry and on paying out leave while employment continues. Article 114(1) of the 2012 Labour Code required payment where leave was untaken "for other reasons"; that wording is gone.
- No exempt staff. Managers and senior foreign staff working under an employment contract have the same minimum. Foreign employees working in Vietnam are covered by the Labour Code (Article 2(3)).
- No reason needed. The Code does not require an employee to justify an annual leave request.
Annual leave entitlement in Vietnam by category and seniority#
| Category | After 12 months | After 5 years | After 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal working conditions | 12 working days | 13 | 14 |
| Minors, employees with disabilities, heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs | 14 working days | 15 | 16 |
| Especially heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs | 16 working days | 17 | 18 |
The annual leave entitlement in Vietnam is a floor; a contract, collective agreement or the internal rules may grant more. Seniority counts service with one employer. Time with another company in the same group is not added automatically; only the public sector has a special aggregation rule (Article 66(3) of Decree 145).
New joiners, probation and part-time staff#
Employees with less than 12 months get leave pro rata (Article 113(2)): (annual days + seniority days) ÷ 12 × months actually worked in the year (Article 66(1) of Decree 145). A partial month counts as a full month if working days plus paid days off (holidays, annual leave, paid personal leave) reach 50% of the normal working days of that month (Article 66(2)). Decree 145 has no rounding rule; the "round up from 0.5" rule some guides still quote came from Decree 45/2013/ND-CP, repealed from 1 February 2021 (Article 114(2)(e) of Decree 145). A company may set a more generous rounding rule in its internal rules.
Article 65 of Decree 145 treats certain periods as working time for leave accrual: apprenticeship and probation if the employee then stays on; paid personal leave; approved unpaid leave up to 1 month a year; work accident or occupational disease leave up to 6 months in total; sick leave up to 2 months a year; maternity leave; time on employee representative duties that counts as working time; work stoppages or time off not caused by the employee's fault; and suspension where no discipline follows.
Probation. Because probation counts only if the employee continues afterwards (Article 65(2)), our reading is that a candidate who fails probation accrues no leave for that period and is owed no payout for it.
Part-time staff. They have equal rights and obligations with full-time staff (Article 32(3)), so they are also entitled to paid annual leave. Neither the Code nor Decree 145 says how to convert the entitlement for part-time work (by days in the employee's own schedule or by hours), so agree the method in the employment contract.
Pay during annual leave in Vietnam, advances and attendance bonuses#
Annual leave in Vietnam is paid at the salary under the employment contract at the time of leave (Article 113(1); Article 67(2) of Decree 145): the base salary, salary allowances and other supplements stated in the contract. Overtime paid for actual hours is not part of that base; see our guide to overtime in Vietnam. The employer cannot cut pay for leave days: deductions from salary are allowed only to compensate for damage to the employer's tools, equipment or property (Article 102(1)).
If the leave starts before payday, the employee is entitled to an advance of at least the salary for the leave days (Article 113(5); Article 101(3)).
Attendance bonuses. Many Vietnamese payrolls include a full-attendance payment, which Vietnamese law does not define. How it interacts with annual leave depends on where it sits:
- In the employment contract as an allowance or a fixed supplement paid each pay period: it forms part of salary (Article 90(1) of the Code; Article 3(5)(b) and (c) of Circular 10/2020/TT-BLDTBXH). In our reading, docking it because the employee took annual leave means not paying full contractual salary for those days, which risks a fine for underpaying contractual salary (Article 23(2) of Decree 283).
- In a bonus policy under Article 104, listed separately from salary: the employer sets the criteria and the law does not expressly forbid counting leave days, but treating lawful leave as absence invites disputes.
The safer design is to define "attendance days" so that annual leave, public holidays and paid personal leave count as days worked.
Scheduling annual leave in Vietnam: notice, refusals and shutdowns#
The internal labour rules must cover annual leave in Vietnam (Article 118(2)(a) of the Code; Article 69(2)(a) of Decree 145); see internal labour rules in Vietnam. Within that framework:
- Notice. The Code sets no notice period for either side. The internal rules set how far ahead employees apply. Employers with fewer than 10 employees do not need written internal rules (Article 118(1)), so put the procedure in the contract or an HR policy.
- Refusing dates. In our reading, as the party that sets the schedule, the employer may refuse a particular date for business reasons. Leaving an employee with no real chance to take leave during the year risks a breach of the annual leave rules.
- Company shutdowns. In our reading, the employer may schedule collective leave, for example extra days around Tet or a plant maintenance week, provided it has consulted employees, given notice and set this out in the internal rules. Leaving part of the entitlement for employees to choose is good practice.
- Leave taken without approval is unauthorised absence under the internal rules, not annual leave. Unauthorised absence becomes a ground for dismissal only at 5 cumulative days within 30 days, or 20 within 365 days, without a legitimate reason (Article 125(4)).
- Protection during leave. The employer may not unilaterally terminate the contract of an employee who is on annual leave (Article 37(2)).
- Records. The labour management register must record and keep updated each employee's leave days in the year (Article 3(2) and (3) of Decree 145).
Annual leave is distinct from paid personal leave (Article 115(1): 3 days for the employee's marriage, 1 day for a child's marriage, 3 days on the death of a parent, parent-in-law, spouse or child), which only requires notice and does not reduce annual leave. Travel days beyond 2 days for a round trip by road, rail or water are added to annual leave once a year (Article 113(6)); fares and pay for those days are agreed between the parties (Article 67(1) of Decree 145).
Unused annual leave in Vietnam and payment on exit#
While employment continues, the Code does not require payment for unused annual leave in Vietnam, and it does not say when leave expires. An employer can set a deadline in the internal rules (for example the end of the first quarter of the following year) or agree on combining leave up to 3 years. In our reading, an expiry rule holds up only if the employer actually let the employee take the leave. A voluntary cash payment instead of leave does not show that the employee was given rest.
When employment ends, payment for untaken annual leave is mandatory for employees who leave or lose their job (Article 113(3)). Settle it within 14 working days of termination, extendable to no more than 30 days in the cases listed in Article 48(1). The base is the contractual salary of the month immediately before the month in which the employee leaves (Article 67(3) of Decree 145), not a six-month average: that average came from the earlier Decree 05/2015/ND-CP, repealed from 1 February 2021 (Article 114(2)(b) of Decree 145). The wording does not distinguish between reasons for leaving; in our reading it includes dismissal. For the wider exit checklist, see terminating an employment contract in Vietnam.
Worked example: payment for untaken annual leave on resignation#
Illustration with assumed figures. Ms A joined on 5 January 2024 (2 months' probation, then an employment contract) in a normal job, so she has 12 days a year. She used all her 2025 leave. Her contract ends after her last working day, 16 October 2026. The company works Monday to Saturday, and its payroll policy uses 26 working days a month.
- Months worked in 2026. January to September: 9. October has 27 normal working days; she worked 14 of them up to 16 October, more than 50%, so October counts (Article 66(2)). Total: 10 months.
- 2026 entitlement. 12 ÷ 12 × 10 = 10 days (Article 66(1)).
- Untaken days. She took 7 days in 2026, leaving 3.
- Salary base. Contractual salary for September 2026: base VND 18,000,000, responsibility allowance VND 2,000,000 and a fixed attendance supplement of VND 800,000 in the contract, total VND 20,800,000 (Article 67(3)). A pay rise from 1 October would not change this base.
- Daily rate. Article 67 does not say how to convert to a daily figure. We apply the daily-wage rule in Article 54(1)(a3) of Decree 145, monthly salary divided by the normal working days the company has chosen: 20,800,000 ÷ 26 = VND 800,000.
- Amount due: 3 × 800,000 = VND 2,400,000, within 14 working days of termination.
If she had taken 11 days against an accrued 10 (leave "in advance"), the law does not say how the extra day is recovered. Salary deductions are limited to compensation for property damage (Article 102(1)) and unlawful deductions are fined under Article 23(2) of Decree 283, so in our reading a unilateral deduction from final pay is risky; agree repayment in writing before granting leave in advance.
Fines for annual leave breaches in Vietnam under Decree 283/2026#
Amounts in Decree 283 are for individuals; companies, branches and representative offices pay double (Article 7(1) and (2)(b)).
| Breach | Company fine (VND) | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Breaching the annual leave rules (no leave granted, no schedule, fewer days than the law requires) | 20–40 million | Article 24(2) |
| Not paying, or underpaying, untaken annual leave on leaving or job loss | 10–20m (1–10 employees); 20–40m (11–50); 40–60m (51–100); 60–80m (101–300); 80–100m (301 or more) | Article 23(2) |
| Not allowing personal leave or statutory unpaid leave | 4–10 million | Article 24(1)(a) |
Unpaid amounts must also be paid with interest at the highest non-term deposit rate of state-owned commercial banks at the time of the penalty (Article 23(5)(a)). Failing to advance salary for leave is not listed separately in Article 23; in our reading it falls under Article 24(2).
If you need your leave policy, attendance bonus definitions, shutdown calendar or exit payments checked, LexData's employment law advice for companies in Vietnam works to an agreed scope. This article is general information and does not replace advice on a specific case.
