Regulations regarding electronic employment contracts
The government issued Decree 337/2025/ND-CP on December 24, 2025, regulating electronic labor contracts.
The decree stipulates that an electronic labor contract is a labor contract concluded and established in the form of data messages in accordance with the law on labor and the law on electronic transactions, and has the same legal validity as a written paper labor contract.
General principles for concluding and executing electronic labor contracts.
According to regulations, the conclusion and execution of electronic labor contracts must comply with the provisions of labor law, electronic transaction law, cybersecurity law, data law, personal data protection law, data storage law, and the provisions of this Decree.
Electronic employment contracts must be sent to both the employee and the employer in the form of data messages via appropriate electronic means as agreed upon by the parties.
Encourage the use of electronic labor contracts to replace paper-based labor contracts in human resource management by employers, and in handling administrative procedures related to labor contracts.
Parties involved in the conclusion and execution of electronic labor contracts
eContract (an information system for electronic transactions in the conclusion and execution of electronic labor contracts) is linked to the Electronic Labor Contract Platform, allowing employees and employers to create, digitally sign, store, retrieve, and manage electronic labor contracts, as well as report on labor usage and certify electronic labor contracts in accordance with regulations.
The parties involved in the conclusion and execution of electronic labor contracts include:
- Employees and employers have the authority to enter into labor contracts as stipulated in Article 18 of the Labor Code.
- The eContract provider guarantees compliance with the specified conditions.
Conditions and methods for concluding electronic labor contracts.
The conclusion of an electronic employment contract through eContract ensures the following conditions are met:
a) Using digital signature software and verifying digital signatures to meet the legal requirements for electronic transactions.
b) Implement security measures to ensure the safety of customer information and electronic labor contract data; have a technical plan to ensure the maintenance and recovery of electronic contract authentication operations in case of incidents.
c) There must be a plan to store and ensure the data integrity of electronic documents; and to ensure the ability to search for electronic labor contracts concluded on eContract.
d) It has the function of ensuring the correct identification of the subject and performing identity verification in accordance with the law on electronic identification and authentication of employees and employers.
d) There are technical measures in place to verify that the identified organization or individual agrees to the terms of the employment contract.
e) Having the function of authenticating electronic labor contracts in accordance with the law on electronic transactions to authenticate electronic labor contracts before sending them to the Electronic Labor Contract Platform for ID assignment.
g) It has the function of converting between electronic and paper-based employment contracts in accordance with the law on electronic transactions.
h) Provide electronic trading accounts that comply with the conditions stipulated in Article 46 of the Law on Electronic Transactions.
i) It has the function of assisting employers in reporting on the employment situation in accordance with labor laws through protocols and formats prescribed by the Ministry of Interior.
k) It has the function of compiling, statistically analyzing, and reporting periodically or on an ad hoc basis to serve the management of electronic labor contract transactions.
l) Connect via a standard application programming interface (API) to the electronic labor contract platform as prescribed by the Ministry of Interior.
m) Ensuring compliance with technical requirements for information security as stipulated by law on cybersecurity.
Employers and employees must ensure the following conditions: (1)
- For individual employees and employers: Identification documents including citizen identity card or electronic identity card or identity certificate or level 2 electronic identity account or valid passport; valid entry visa or documents proving visa exemption (for foreign individuals).
- For employers who are businesses, agencies, organizations, cooperatives, or households: Decision on establishment or decision regulating functions, tasks, powers, organizational structure or business registration certificate or investment certificate or household business registration certificate and personal identification documents of the legal representative of the business, agency, organization, cooperative, or household, including: citizen identification card or identity card or identity certificate or level 2 electronic identification account or valid passport; valid entry visa or documents proving exemption from entry visa (for foreign individuals).
- Possess a digital signature and use a timestamping service as required by law on electronic transactions.
The eContract provider must ensure the following conditions:
- There is an eContract that meets the above conditions.
- There are solutions and technologies to collect, check, compare, and ensure the correct match between the identifying information of organizations and individuals, biometric data of the legal representative of organizations and individuals (which are biological elements and characteristics associated with the legal representative of the organization or individual being identified, difficult to forge, with a low rate of overlap such as fingerprints, face, iris, voice and other biometric elements) with the corresponding biometric information and elements on the personal documents of the legal representative of the organization or individual as prescribed (1) above and ensure that the subject is correctly identified and identity verification is performed in accordance with the law on electronic identification and verification.
- Possesses a business license for reliable services, with the permitted service being the provision of data message authentication services in accordance with the law on electronic transactions.
Electronic employment contract with ID
The Decree stipulates that electronic labor contracts must be created, the identities of the parties entering into the contract verified, digitally signed, timestamped, and the data message of the eContract Provider authenticated within the electronic labor contract on the eContract platform, ensuring compliance with regulations. Within 24 hours of the last party signing, the eContract Provider must send the electronic labor contract to the Electronic Labor Contract Platform to be assigned an ID as prescribed by the Ministry of Interior.
Validity of electronic employment contracts
The decree stipulates that electronic labor contracts are effective from the moment the last party digitally signs, attaches the timestamp to the digital signatures of the parties involved in the contract, and authenticates the data message of the eContract Provider on the electronic labor contract, unless the parties agree otherwise.
Switching between paper-based and electronic employment contracts.
According to regulations, electronic labor contracts converted from paper-based labor contracts must comply with the provisions of Clause 1, Article 12 of the Law on Electronic Transactions and meet the following requirements:
- Parties entering into a written employment contract must be authenticated in accordance with the law on electronic identification and authentication.
- The converted electronic labor contract must be digitally signed by an authorized representative of the employer to verify its accuracy and completeness compared to the original, and the employer will be legally responsible for the converted content. The converted electronic labor contract must be assigned an ID.
A paper-based employment contract converted from an electronic employment contract shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of Clause 2, Article 12 of the Law on Electronic Transactions.
The converted employment contract is valid as the original when it meets all the conditions stipulated by law regarding electronic transactions.
This Decree shall take effect from January 1, 2026.
The electronic labor contract platform must be officially put into operation no later than July 1, 2026. The conclusion and implementation of electronic labor contracts shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of this Decree from July 1, 2026.
