Annual leave is the period of time during which employees are entitled to rest in addition to weekly leave, holidays, personal leave or unpaid leave at the enterprise or employer. During annual leave days, employees still receive their full salary. Such a regulation serves as an encouragement to workers during hard working days . Below, LawFirm.Vn will provide the necessary information according to the provisions of the 2019 Labor Code.
1. Regulations on annual leave
According to the provisions of Article 113 of the 2019 Labor Code, the number of annual leave days is determined according to the employee’s regular working hours, specifically:
1.1. For employees working for 12 months or more
Employees who work for a full 12 months for an employer are entitled to annual leave with full salary according to the labor contract as follows:
– 12 working days for people doing the job under normal conditions.
– 14 working days for minor workers, disabled workers, people doing heavy, toxic, and dangerous jobs.
– 16 working days for people doing extremely heavy, toxic, and dangerous jobs.
Note : The number of annual leave days mentioned above is subject to change, specifically it will increase according to working seniority. According to Article 114 of the 2019 Labor Code :For every 5 years of working for an employer, the employee’s number of annual leave days will be increased by 1 day.
1.2. For employees working less than 12 months
According to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 113 of the 2019 Labor Code , employees who work for less than 12 months for an employer will have the number of annual leave days proportional to the number of months of work.
In general, employees who have worked for their employer for less than 12 months are still entitled to annual leave. The number of days off per year depends on the working period.
In addition, Vietnamese labor law also stipulates the following cases: When taking annual leave, if the employee travels by road, rail, or waterway and the number of days on the road both there and back is more than 02 days, from the 3rd day onwards, is counted as additional travel time in addition to the annual leave day and is only counted for 01 leave per year. (Clause 6, Article 113 of the Labor Code 2019)

2. Salary for employees who have not taken all their annual leave
According to Clause 3, Article 113 of the 2019 Labor Code , not all cases of not taking all annual leave days will be counted as salary but must fall into the cases prescribed by law. Specifically:
“In cases where due to resignation or job loss, annual leave has not been taken or all annual leave days have not been taken, the employer will pay salary for the days not taken off.”
Therefore, only those who do not take all their annual leave days due to resignation or job loss will be paid by the employer.
This is a difference from the provisions of the 2012 Labor Code, because the 2012 Labor Code stipulates: “Employees who have not taken annual leave due to resignation, job loss or other reasons or have not yet taken all the days of annual leave, they will be paid in cash for the days not yet taken . ” Accordingly, it can be seen that the 2019 Labor Code has eliminated the case of “for other reasons” from cases of being paid when annual leave has not been taken.
Therefore, employees must take advantage of their right to annual leave and take all the allowed days off so as not to waste their benefits.
Besides the issue of annual leave, the 2019 Labor Code also stipulates:
– The employer is responsible for determining the annual leave schedule after consulting with the employee and must notify the employee in advance.
– Employees can agree with the employer to take annual leave in installments or combine leave for up to 3 years at a time.
– When taking annual leave but the salary period has not yet reached, the employee is entitled to an advance salary according to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 101 of the 2019 Labor Code.