Is there a penalty for a company that does not return job applications to employees?

Will employers be fined if they do not return job applications to employees?

In case an employer intentionally retains records and documents as prescribed above from an employee in order to cause difficulties for the employee, that employer will be sanctioned for administrative violations in the specific labor field according to Clause 2, Article 12 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP:

“2. Fines shall be imposed on employers who commit one of the following acts: Modifying the term of the contract with an appendix to the labor contract; failing to comply with regulations on the payment deadline for employee benefits upon termination of the labor contract; failing to pay or insufficiently paying severance pay to employees according to the provisions of law; failing to pay or insufficiently paying unemployment benefits to employees according to the provisions of law; failing to pay or insufficiently paying employees labor according to the provisions of law when unilaterally terminating the labor contract illegally; failing to complete procedures to confirm the period of payment of social insurance and unemployment insurance and return it along with the original copies of other documents kept by the employee after terminating the labor contract according to the provisions of law.; Do not provide copies of documents related to the employee’s working history if the employee requests after terminating the labor contract at one of the following levels:

a) From 1,000,000 VND to 2,000,000 VND for violations from 01 person to 10 employees;

b) From 2,000,000 VND to 5,000,000 VND for violations from 11 to 50 employees;

c) From 5,000,000 VND to 10,000,000 VND for violations involving 51 to 100 employees;

d) From 10,000,000 VND to 15,000,000 VND for violations from 101 to 300 employees;

d) From 15,000,000 VND to 20,000,000 VND for violations of 301 or more employees.”

Thus, when an employer violates, depending on the number of employees, there will be a specific fine ranging from 01 million up to 20 million VND.

The above fine is reserved for individual employers who violate, while violating organizations will be fined double the above amount (as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 6 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP).

If the company does not return job applications to employees, besides being fined, are there any other penalties?

According to regulations, for this violation, in addition to being fined, the employer will not be subject to any other additional sanctions, however, remedial measures will have to be taken, specifically according to point b, clause 4, Article 12 of Decree 12/2022/ND-CP which stipulates:

“Force the employer to complete the procedure to confirm and return other documents kept by the employee to the employee for the act of not completing the procedure to confirm the time of payment of social insurance and unemployment insurance and return them along with the original copies of other documents kept by the employee after terminating the labor contract according to the provisions of law specified in Clause 2 of this Article”

Thus, you can get your old company’s job application back (original application) after quitting your job to apply for a new company. In case the company does not return original documents and diplomas to the employee, the employee can file a complaint with the company director for resolution.