Is weekly rest day required to be on Saturday or Sunday?

According to the law, is the weekly day off required to be on Saturday or Sunday? - Reader Hoang Nam

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Is weekly rest day required to be on Saturday or Sunday?

According to Article 111 of the 2019 Labor Code, every week, employees will be arranged by the company to have at least 24 consecutive hours off. If it is not possible to arrange weekly breaks for employees, the company is responsible for ensuring that employees have an average of at least 4 days off per month.

The employer has the right to decide to arrange the weekly day off on Sunday or another specified day of the week, but must record it in the labor regulations.

It can be seen that current law does not require companies to give employees weekly days off on Saturday and Sunday, but companies can completely arrange other days of the week for employees to take days off, but must record it in the labor regulations.

Due to the nature of the job, there are even cases where employees have to work for a whole week without a day off. However, the company must then arrange for the employee to take time off to ensure that he or she gets an average of 4 days off per month.

In reality, domestic companies often choose to give employees weekly leave in one of the following three common forms (except for some special cases due to the nature of the job):

- Give employees 1 day off per week on Sunday;

- Or give employees 1 and a half days off every week on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday.

- Or give employees 2 days off every week on Saturday and Sunday.

How to calculate salary on Saturday and Sunday

Pursuant to the provisions of the 2019 Labor Code and other relevant guiding regulations:

(1) In case Saturday and Sunday are normal working days, employees are entitled to receive normal wages according to the agreement in the signed labor contract.

(2) In case Saturday and Sunday are weekly days off, employees will be paid overtime if they work on these days, specifically as follows:

- Calculating overtime pay during the day:

+ For employees who receive wages based on time, overtime pay is paid when working outside of normal working hours as prescribed by the employer according to Article 105 of the 2019 Labor Code and is calculated according to the following formula:

Overtime pay = (Actual hourly wage for work performed on a normal working day) x (At least 200%) x (Number of overtime hours)

+ For employees paid by product, overtime pay is paid when working outside of normal working hours to produce additional quantity or volume of products beyond the quantity or volume of products according to the labor norm as agreed with the employer and calculated according to the following formula:

Overtime wages = (Unit price of product wages of normal working day) x (At least 150% or 200% or 300%) x (Number of overtime products)

- Calculating overtime pay at night:

+ For employees paid by time, overtime pay at night is calculated as follows:

Overtime wages at night = [(Actual hourly wages of the work being done on a normal working day) x (At least 200%) + (Actual hourly wages of the work being done on a normal working day) x At least 30% + (20%) x (Hourly wages during the day of a weekly day off)] x Number of overtime hours at night

+ For employees paid by product, overtime pay at night is calculated as follows:

Overtime wages at night = [(Unit price of product wages on normal working day) x (At least 200%) + (Unit price of product wages on normal working day) x At least 30% + (20%) x (Unit price of product wages during the day of weekly day off)] x Number of products worked overtime at night

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