Employers keep original copies of diplomas and certificates of employees violates the law?

Is it illegal for employers to keep original copies of employee diplomas and certificates?

Question:

In February 2024, I went for an interview at Company I would like to ask, is this behavior of Company X violating the law?

Answer:

According to the provisions of Article 13 of the 2019 Labor Code, a labor contract is an agreement between an employee and an employer regarding paid employment, wages, working conditions, rights and obligations of each party in the labor relationship. Therefore, before accepting employees to work, the employer must enter into a labor contract with the employee.

Article 17 of the 2019 Labor Code stipulates actions that employers are not allowed to do when concluding and implementing labor contracts as follows:

“1. Keep the original copies of identification documents, diplomas, and certificates of the employee. 2. Require the employee to provide security measures in money or other assets for the performance of the labor contract. 3. Force the employee to perform the labor contract to repay the debt to the employer.”

Thus, according to the above regulations, keeping the original identification documents, diplomas, Employee certification is an act that an employer is not allowed to do when concluding and implementing a labor contract. Therefore, it is illegal for Company A to require you to submit the original university degree and certificates related to the job position./.

What is the penalty for the company keeping the original bachelor’s degree of the employee?

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 9 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP stipulating penalties for violations of regulations on entering into labor contracts as follows:

Violation of regulations on entering into labor contracts
A fine of between VND 20,000,000 and VND 25,000,000 shall be imposed on employers who commit one of the following acts:
a) Keep the original copies of the employee’s identification documents, diplomas or certificates when concluding or implementing the labor contract;
b) Forcing the employee to provide security in money or other assets for the performance of the labor contract;
c) Enter into a labor contract with an employee from 15 years old to under 18 years old without the written consent of that person’s legal representative.
Thus, if the user keeps the original bachelor’s degree of the employee, they will be fined from 20,000,000 VND to 25,000,000 VND.

In addition, based on Article 6 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP stipulates as follows:

Fine level, sanctioning authority and principles of application to with repeated administrative violations
1. The fines prescribed for violations specified in Chapter II, Chapter III and Chapter IV of this Decree are fines for individuals, except for the cases specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 5, Article 7; Clauses 3, 4, 6 Article 13; Clause 2, Article 25; Clause 1, Article 26; Clauses 1, 5, 6, 7 Article 27; Clause 8, Article 39; Clause 5, Article 41; Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Article 42; Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Article 43; Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Article 45; Clause 3, Article 46 of this Decree. The fine for organizations is 2 times the fine for individuals.
If the company violates the regulations on entering into labor contracts specified in Chapter II of this Decree, the company will be punished twice as much. Therefore, the fine that the company must bear is 40,000,000 VND to 80,000,000 VND.