Late for work 8 times, girl fined 4.6 million VND by company

Ms. CHPT (living in Hanoi ) said that the company's working hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The fines were the result of her being late 8 times (total 96 minutes) and leaving early 2 times, despite the approval of the team leader (total 137 minutes).

At the time of employment, the company announced the monthly penalty for lateness, calculated according to the following formula: basic salary divided by the actual number of working days, divided by 8 (office hours), then divided by 60 (minutes per hour) and then multiplied by the number of minutes late, multiplied by 100%.

Ms. T. was surprised by the September salary slip because she was fined more than 4.6 million VND (Photo: Character provided).

However, most of these regulations are only announced verbally. Ms. T. had to work for nearly 6 months without a labor contract because "the company was newly established".

On October 2, the director informed Ms. T. that she was late too often and needed to improve. On October 3, she was suddenly fired by a phone call from the company director without receiving any dismissal decision or disciplinary record.

While confused, Ms. T. received her September salary and was shocked to see that she was fined more than 4.6 million VND.

"I asked the company to resolve the matter because they did not have the right to fine such a large amount to the employee, but the accountant informed me that the boss had approved it and could not resolve it. I tried to call the boss, but he did not answer the phone," said Ms. T.

Facing work pressure, workers also have headaches when they are fined for making mistakes (Illustration: CNBC).

According to Ms. T., the company office is located in an apartment building with no private elevator, so she often has to wait for the elevator for a long time, leading to being late. Some other colleagues made similar mistakes and also had to grit their teeth and pay large fines.

Two days after being fired, Ms. T. still has not received her salary from the company. In the sudden situation of unemployment, she had to borrow money from relatives and friends to temporarily pay for living expenses.

"Usually I get paid on the 5th of every month, but now it's past the due date and I still haven't seen the money. I planned to use the remaining amount after the penalty to pay off my debt, but in reality I still haven't seen the money yet," Ms. T. was frustrated.

Similarly, Ms. Huong Ly (living in Ho Chi Minh City) also experienced harsh rewards and punishments many times at work. Ly used to be a collaborator for a travel agency, specializing in short tours, guiding visitors to tourist attractions in Ho Chi Minh City.

For each tour lasting more than 5 hours, Ly was paid 300,000 VND. As a collaborator, Ly still had a labor contract, but the document did not mention the bonus or penalty. However, the company later verbally announced the penalty for being late, with 200,000 VND for the first time and 500,000 VND for the second time, and dismissal for the third time.

Many employees cannot stand the strict punishments at the company (Illustration photo).

Once, she was unfortunately 2 minutes late and was fined more than 60% of her wages for that day.

"I didn't know much about the law and thought I was just a collaborator, so I silently accepted the fine. That day I only received 100,000 VND for work, and it was all spent on gas and dinner," Ly confided.

Kim Mai (22 years old, living in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) is a cashier at a Japanese restaurant and has also been fined for all sorts of weird mistakes.

"When I accidentally entered the wrong name of a dish on the system or a customer who bought through the app canceled the order before the staff pressed payment, I had to pay the full amount of that order," Mai sadly recalled many times being fined from 70,000 to 190,000 VND.

The amount of money is not large, but for Mai it was a hard day's work. As a part-time employee, Mai's income for 4 hours of work was only 120,000 VND.

* Names of some characters have been changed upon request.

According to lawyer Tran Minh Hung (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association), businesses fining employees is not in accordance with the law.

Specifically, Article 127 of the 2019 Labor Code stipulates prohibited acts when handling labor discipline, including: Infringing upon the health, honor, life, reputation, and dignity of employees; imposing fines and salary cuts in lieu of handling labor discipline; handling labor discipline against employees who commit violations not specified in the labor regulations or not agreed upon in the signed labor contract or not regulated by labor law.

In addition, according to Point b, Clause 3, Article 19 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP, which stipulates the level of penalty when a company requests a fine from an employee who violates the law, an employer who uses a fine or salary cut instead of handling labor discipline will be subject to an administrative fine of 20-40 million VND depending on the severity of the violation.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/di-lam-muon-8-lan-co-gai-bi-cong-ty-phat-46-trieu-dong-20231005174058291.htm