Is it legal to deduct salary for being late?

Many workers report that their wages and salaries are arbitrarily deducted when they are late for work or violate company regulations. Meanwhile, the law has no regulations on this matter.

“The first day I was 15 minutes late, the next day I was half an hour late because of traffic jam. The company leader based on the timekeeping machine and announced that they would deduct a total of one day's salary from me. Having just received her first month's salary, Ms. Tran Thi Ai Nhu (28 years old, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) had one day's salary deducted because she was late once.

However, my being late does not affect my work, because I mainly go out to meet customers to sign product purchase contracts" - Ms. Nhu was upset.

5 minutes late, deduct half a day's salary

According to Ms. Nhu, in the labor contract signed between her and the company, there is no provision stipulating the deduction of salary due to lateness. The company also does not have a document clearly stating the regulations on salary deduction.

When she asked the company's leadership, she was told that this was an unwritten rule that had been in place since its inception. The company said that even if she was only 5 minutes late, half a day's salary would be deducted, and that was how it was calculated.

Not only Ms. Nhu, many workers reported that the company had made arbitrary deductions from their salaries: not wearing uniforms, not wearing badges, money for material loss... When questioned, the company explained that it was a regulation and blamed the workers for not understanding it.

Workers working for food service companies are even more severely deducted. For example, Mr. Le Minh Loc, a waiter for TM Food Service Company (Tan Phu District), has at least 20-30% of his salary deducted every month, including compensation for... broken dishes at the restaurant.

He said: “My salary is only over 3 million VND/month, but there are months when I only get half of it.” He said that after complaining, the manager replied that the salary deduction was an “economic measure” to scare employees and prevent them from violating the law again.

Minus allowances

Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Giang (District 10) works as a pharmaceutical representative for a pharmaceutical company, so she often makes transactions, receives invoices, or receives payments for the company.

She said there was a pharmacy customer who “cheated” nearly 150 million VND, and the company director forced her to take responsibility. So for over a year now, every month she has had nearly 10 million VND deducted from her salary, bonuses, and contracted revenue.

She told the company's leader that the order was recorded as a customer's purchase from the company. The customer's default on the payment was the customer's fault, and the responsibility was between the customer and the company. However, the director still made her take responsibility.

Not only did the company suffer because of customers who "defaulted" on their debts, when customers were late in paying contracts that employees "earned", the company handled the situation by withholding bonuses and allowances (maternity allowance, vacation...) and gradually deducting a little each month until all were gone.

According to lawyers, this is a way for companies to circumvent the law when employing workers. Salary must be understood to include both basic salary (fixed salary) and allowances, overtime pay, direct pay...

Deductions from wages are illegal.

According to Article 84 of the Labor Code, labor violators, depending on the severity of the violation, will be subject to one of the following penalties: reprimand, extension of salary increase period for no more than 6 months or transfer to another job with a lower salary for no more than 6 months, or dismissal.

The law also stipulates that multiple forms of discipline cannot be applied for one violation of labor discipline.

Regarding other salary deductions such as the cases of Mr. Loc and Ms. Giang, the lawyer also said that according to Article 101 of the Labor Code on salary deductions, employers are only allowed to deduct employees' salaries to compensate for damages caused by damaging the employer's tools and equipment.

The monthly salary deduction level shall not exceed 30% of the employee's monthly salary after deducting compulsory social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and income tax.

According to Article 130 of the Labor Code on compensation for damages, in Mr. Loc's case, the damage is not serious (damage less than 10 months of minimum wage), Mr. Loc must compensate at most 3 months of salary and have it deducted monthly from his salary.

According to TTO