Civil servants only get 1 hour lunch break?

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In the draft Labor Code being published for comments, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed two options for regulating working hours in administrative agencies, political organizations, and socio-political organizations.

Option 1, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs proposes to stipulate in the law: "The Government shall uniformly regulate the start and end times of working hours of administrative agencies nationwide."

According to option 1, the expected working hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a 60-minute lunch break (less than the currently applied lunch break). This working time regulation does not apply to units or departments that must be on duty 24/7 to ensure work continuity or directly handle work with the people. This option aims to unify the working hours of state administrative agencies from central to local levels, more in line with the working hours of other countries.

Option 2 is to keep the current regulations, working hours are not regulated in the Labor Code but are regulated in administrative documents. For Ministries, it is decided by the Prime Minister, for People's Committees and specialized agencies under the Committee, it is decided by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Explaining the proposal to unify working hours in administrative agencies, political organizations, and socio-political organizations, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said that currently, the decision on the starting time of work for enterprises is decided by the enterprise; for administrative agencies, it is decided by the head of the agency in accordance with the leadership and management authority prescribed in the Law on Organization of the Government and the Law on Organization of Local Government. The application of working hours in State agencies in reality is currently causing some problems.

Currently, central and local agencies do not have unified working hours. Central agencies start working at 8am, while most localities start working at 7am in the summer or 7:30am in the winter. There are also differences in Hanoi.

In localities, common summer working hours are morning from 7:00 to 11:30; afternoon from 13:30 to 17:00; winter common are morning from 7:30 to 12:00; afternoon from 13:30 to 17:00. Lunch break lasts about 1.5-2 hours.

The difference in working hours does not ensure the connection between working hours of central and local government agencies, and is not in line with the general trend of developed countries. Therefore, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs proposes a plan to unify working hours of administrative agencies nationwide.