Disabled people are
those who have one or more body parts or functional impairments which are
manifested in the form of disability, which makes it difficult for labor,
living and learning. The State sponsors the right to labor and creates jobs for
disabled workers, has policies to encourage and give incentives to employers to
create jobs and to accept workers with disabilities to work in Vietnam.
The disabled people are
inherently disadvantaged compared to other ordinary people, so to compensate
for the unfortunate disabled people, the government has established mechanisms
and policies for disabled employees and enterprises employing disabled laborers,
being regulated in the law as following.
Corporate Income Tax
The company will enjoy
corporate income tax exemption for income from goods and services of
enterprises with an average number of disabled employees in the year accounts
for 30% or more of the total labor of the enterprise.
Financial Support to
Improve Work Conditions
Enterprises are provided
with financial support to improve working conditions and environment for
disabled workers, the support level is based on the proportion of people with stable
employment at production and business establishments. The President of the
provincial People’s Committee decides the level of funding to support the
improvement of working conditions and environment for production and business
establishments employing 30% or more of the disabled employees.
Land, Ground, Water
Surface Rentals
Enterprises are exempted
from land rents, ground and water surface rents for land, ground and water
surface in service of production and business activities for production and
business establishments employing 70% or more of their disabled employee.
Enterprises are entitled to a 50% reduction of land rents, grounds and water
surface for production and business activities for production and business
establishments employing from 30% to less than 70% of laborers are disabled
employees. During the period of exemption or reduction of land rents, premises,
water surface, business and production establishments must not convert,
transfer, donate, give or lease land use rights, ground and water surface and
must not mortgage, pledge, guarantee, contribute capital in, joint venture with
land use rights, ground and water surfaces in accordance with the Law on land.
Loan Support
The enterprises which
have disabled employees may borrow capital from the national fund for
employment when meeting conditions such as: having feasible capital borrowing
projects competitions in the locality, in line with business and production
lines, attracting more workers to work stably; loan project with certification
of the competent agency, organization where the project is implemented; secured
loan.
Besides, the enterprises
which have disabled employers have to follow a number of requirements. i)
do not distinguish between disabled workers and other workers. The
violation of such would be sanctioned from 3 – 5 million VND; ii) ensure that
the labor conditions are suitable for people with disabilities, specific businesses
must ensure the labor conditions, labor tools, occupational safety, hygiene and
labor appropriate for people with disabilities and regularly take care of their
health by organizing periodic health check at least 06 months/time; must
consult with the defective labor when deciding on the policy relating to them.
The violations of such activities will be fined from 1 – 15 million VND; iii)
do not use disabled workers who have reduced labor capacity from 51% or more to
overtime, working at night, doing heavy, malicious, dangerous or exposed work
with hazardous substances. In the event of a breach of such regulations,
the enterprise will be fined from 1 – 15 million VND; iv) arranged for workers
with disabilities who are allowed to take leave for 14 days for disabled
workers with full 12 working months.
The above provisions are
the basic labour regulations applicable to enterprises employing disabled
workers. While there are benefits, there are also challenges in terms of
labour regulations compliance. Consulting with labour lawyers would be
needed to help the employer complying including drafting labour contract,
drafting internal labour regulations, terminating the employment relationship
to best manage the work force in the most effective ways. From the management
point of view, the employers need to understand, and be aware of the policies
that the state offers for their business as well as the obligations that the
business needs to do for disabled workers to utilize and follow.
