How many days off for Lunar New Year 2018?

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is leaning towards the option of two days off before Tet and three days after Tet, starting from December 29.

Mr. Doan Mau Diep, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, signed a document to send to ministries and branches to comment on the draft report to the Prime Minister on holidays and Tet in 2018 for cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers of administrative agencies, public service agencies, political organizations and socio-political organizations.

Both Tet holiday options are seven days.

Regarding Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs stated that Article 115 of the 2012 Labor Code stipulates five days off. Article 8 of Decree 45/2013 of the Government allows employers to choose one day at the end of the year and four days at the beginning of the year, or two days at the end of the year and three days at the beginning of the year. Based on these two bases, the Ministry proposed two options for the 2018 Lunar New Year holiday as follows:

Option 1, Employees will have consecutive days off from February 14 to February 20, 2018 (ie from December 29 to January 5). Including two days before Tet, three days after Tet, and two compensatory days off because the 2nd and 3rd days of Tet coincide with weekly days off.

Option 2, Employees will have consecutive days off from February 15 to February 21, 2018 (ie from December 30 to January 6). Including one day before Tet, four days after Tet, and two compensatory days off because the 2nd and 3rd days of Tet coincide with weekly days off.

According to the assessment of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, although the number of days off is 7, option 1 is more harmonious and suitable because the number of days off before Tet is two days which is not too short, the number of days off after Tet is five days in accordance with regulations. With option 2, the day of returning to work is only two days before the weekend, which will affect the psychology, making employees less serious. "With the above analysis, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs proposes to implement the Lunar New Year holiday schedule according to option 1" - Deputy Minister Diep informed.

Ho Chi Minh City residents return to their hometowns for Tet. Photo: HTD

Workers talk less, businesses see it as acceptable

According to Mr. Nguyen Thang, an employee of Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen Company, a 10-day Tet holiday is reasonable. "Having a holiday until the 29th of the lunar calendar is very stressful for employees and increases traffic pressure when people rush back to their hometowns in a short time," he said. Moreover, a long holiday will stimulate consumption and tourism, and even if employees are not given enough time off, they will still ask for leave. As a result, businesses still have no people to produce.

As the owner of a construction company, Mr. Tran Ut thinks that the seven-day break as proposed by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is appropriate. The reason is that Vietnamese workers often have a "restless" mentality before and after Tet, so a long break will further affect the productivity, production and business of the enterprise. Mr. Ut commented: "Many people think that a long break creates conditions to stimulate consumption, but if there is too much of a break without income, how can we stimulate consumption? In my opinion, a seven-day break is enough to take care of traditional ceremonies, travel, rest, and ensure work requirements."

On the contrary, Mr. Mai Long, a judicial officer, affirmed that the view that long breaks affect work is only true for agencies providing public services. Particularly, the sector of cadres, civil servants, and workers far from home wants to take longer breaks to deal with family matters, to have more time to visit relatives after a hard year of work. "It's only once a year, I think we should consider giving 10 days off," Mr. Long shared.

According to PLO