Last minute change of business hours proposal
Less than 72 hours before submitting to the National Assembly, Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung adjusted some contents of the Proposal to amend the 2012 Labor Law in the direction of absorbing public opinions. Most notably, the proposed change in working hours nationwide.
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| The proposed working hours have been adjusted to be more flexible. |
After nearly 20 days of announcing the Draft Amendment to the 2012 Labor Law, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has received many comments on 6 major contents, such as: Adjusting the retirement age, increasing overtime hours, unifying working hours nationwide, adding holidays, organizing workers at the workplace, and not taking compensatory leave for Lunar New Year.
In particular, working hours nationwide is one of the proposals that received many constructive comments from ministries, local branches and public opinion.
On May 17, close to the day of submitting the proposal to National Assembly deputies for official comments, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs made adjustments to the proposal related to working hours nationwide, which was recorded in the new version of the draft Proposal to amend the 2012 Labor Law, before submitting it to the National Assembly at the 7th Session starting on May 20, in Hanoi.
Specifically, option 1 in the new version of the draft Proposal has been revised as follows: "The Government is assigned to uniformly regulate the start and end times of working hours of administrative agencies nationwide."
For central government agencies and large cities, it is from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a 60-minute lunch break (except for units or departments that must be on duty 24/7 to ensure work continuity or directly handle work with the people).
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| The working hours of administrative officials at the central and local levels are currently not unified. Photo: thanhnien.vn |
For local government agencies, summer and winter working hours are unified according to geographical conditions.
In addition, the new version of the draft Proposal still maintains option 2 as in the old version announced on April 28: “Maintain the current working hours 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)”.
Previously, option 1 in the draft Proposal announced on April 28 stated that "The Government shall regulate the unified start and end times of working hours of administrative agencies nationwide". The expected working hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a 60-minute lunch break (except for units or departments that must be on duty 24/7 to ensure work continuity or directly handle work with the people).