On March 4, 2020, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 28/2020/ND-CP Providing Regulations on Administrative Penalties in the Areas of Labor, Social Insurance, and Sending Vietnamese Workers Abroad for Working Under Contract (“Decree 28”). Decree 28 contains 57 articles geared toward protecting Vietnamese workers, including outsourced workers.Decree 28 sets out a number of infractions which employers should be careful to avoid committing and which can result in severe penalties.

On March 25, 2020, the IP Office of Vietnam (formerly the NOIP) issued Announcement No. 5060/TB-SHTT on Strengthening the Initiation of Measures to Prevent and Combat COVID-19.Announcement 5060 provides some measures to protect IP Office personnel in the COVID-19 situation, in particular in relation to arranging fee collection and receiving guests such as for interviews, and relating to working remotely from home. Announcement 5060 provides some important points that warrant attention by rightsholders and practitioners, namely:

The adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have led employers to look for ways to mitigate the losses being wrought by the turmoil. While working remotely from home is a viable option for some, economic slowdown or to the nature of some industries make it unfeasible for others.This article considers the legality of some measures to mitigate employment costs in Laos.Can an employer suspend an employment contract?

Laos’ Ministry of Finance has announced that the submission deadline for 2019 financial reports has been postponed from March 30, 2020, to April 30, 2020, to help mitigate the difficulties encountered by companies in light of the global COVID-19 epidemic. The measures, announced in Notification No. 0636, also allow for the possibility of a further blanket extension of this deadline, at the government’s discretion, should the situation fail to improve in time for the April 30 deadline to be tenable.

Laos’ Ministry of Finance has announced that the submission deadline for 2019 financial reports has been postponed from March 30, 2020, to April 30, 2020, to help mitigate the difficulties encountered by companies in light of the global COVID-19 epidemic. The measures, announced in Notification No. 0636, also allow for the possibility of a further blanket extension of this deadline, at the government’s discretion, should the situation fail to improve in time for the April 30 deadline to be tenable.

On Wednesday, March 25, the President’s Office issued a letter containing measures to mitigate the potential impact of COVID-19 on government offices, because of the potential for the rapid spread of COVID-19, and as a result of the discovery of the first three cases in Myanmar.The letter states that:

Appeals in the IP field are very common in Vietnam, but it can take a long time to for these cases to be resolved, and the number of appeals pending at the moment is rather high. One of the reasons for this is the lack of human resources allocated to resolving appeals.

Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has taken top priority for almost every country in the world. In Thailand, even though the strength of the country’s health security measures has been ranked sixth-best globally, COVID-19 has hit hard, and the number of confirmed cases is steadily increasing each day.