Each electronic employment contract will be assigned a unique identifier

Proposals are outlined in the draft Circular detailing Decree 337/2025/ND-CP on electronic labour contracts, which is currently being solicited for feedback by the Ministry of Home Affairs. In the memorandum accompanying the draft, the Ministry of Home Affairs states that a labour contract is a legal framework that plays a crucial role in establishing the employment relationship between the employer and the employee. Practically, electronic labour contracts have many advantages over paper contracts. Under the Labour Code 2019, electronic labour contracts have the same validity as written contracts, encouraging parties to conclude agreements through electronic means. After nearly five years of implementing the 2019 Labour Code, it has shown that electronic labour contracts bring numerous benefits to workers and employers, especially for enterprises with large workforces. For example: greater flexibility in space and time when concluding contracts; saving time, costs, and manpower in drafting, signing, managing, and storing records; improved management and administrative efficiency; enhanced safety and information security... However, the process of executing and enforcing electronic labour contracts also faces many obstacles and difficulties that affect the demand for electronic contract signing by employers and employees. Therefore, most enterprises have proposed that the state agency issue guidelines on signing and implementing electronic labour contracts to overcome practical difficulties, prevent violations in signing and enforcing electronic labour contracts, and protect the legitimate rights of the parties in the labour relationship. On that basis, the draft Circular sets out principles for assigning an identifier (ID). Each electronic labour contract submitted to the Electronic Labour Contract Platform, if compliant, will be assigned a unique ID that does not duplicate any other electronic labour contract. The ID is issued once and does not change during the contract’s lifetime, including in cases of amendments, supplements, or termination. An appendix to the electronic labour contract (if any) is linked to the ID of the original contract. Issuing the ID does not change the signing time, content, or effective date of the electronic labour contract. In addition, the ID structure implemented by the Platform follows an automatic algorithm, consisting of 1 letter and 12 digits, where the letter is A, B, or C. The letter A designates electronic labour contracts concluded through eContract that comply with the provisions of Decree 337/2025/ND-CP; B designates contracts converted from paper-based labour contracts; C designates contracts concluded before 1 July 2026. The 12 digits are: the first 2 digits are the province/city code where the employer’s headquarters is located; the next 2 digits are the last two digits of the year the electronic contract was successfully uploaded to the Platform; the remaining 8 digits are the sequential number of contracts uploaded to the Platform that year. Example: ID: A012600000099 indicates an electronic labour contract concluded in compliance with Decree 337/2025/ND-CP, with sequence number 99 uploaded to the Platform in 2026 for an employer headquartered in Hanoi. There are currently no official government statistics on electronic labour contracts. Information from technology companies providing electronic labour contract software (such as VNPT, FPT, Viettel, EFY…) suggests about 21 technology companies are involved in this field. According to a company’s report, its electronic labour contract software serves 17,230 employers, generating more than 2.5 million electronic labour contracts monthly, a substantial increase compared with 2021 (when the 2019 Labour Code took effect), with an estimated annual growth of nearly 100%. This indicates that the number of employers choosing to conclude and implement electronic labour contracts is rising rapidly year over year and has room to grow further in the future. The Government requires electronic labour contracts to be implemented from 1 July 2026. Chính phủ yêu cầu phải thực hiện hợp đồng lao động điện tử từ 1/7/2026