How many times is an definite-term employment contract signed?

I have worked for a company since 2013. Every year, the Company signs a definite-term employment contract of 12 months. However, on December 25, 2020, I received a notice from the Company about not continuing to extend the Labor Contract. On December 30, 2020, we will have the Labor Contract terminated. Can anyone tell me that it was right or wrong?

FDVN’s Opinions:

According to Article 22 of Labor Code 2012 on types of employment contracts:

“1. A labor contract must be entered into in one of the following types:

a/ Indefinite-term labor contract;

An indefinite-term labor contract is a contract in which the two parties do not determine the duration and the time of termination of the contract.

b/ Definite-term labor contract;

A definite-term labor contract is a contract in which the two parties determine the duration and the time of termination of the contract within a period of between 12 months and 36 months.

c/ A seasonal or work-specific labor contract that has a duration of under 12 months.

2. When a labor contract stipulated at Points b and c, Clause 1 of this Article expires and the employee continues working, within thirty (30) days from the date of expiration of the contract, the two parties shall sign a new labor contract; if no new labor contract is entered into, the contract entered into under Point b, Clause 1 of this Article will become an indefinite-term labor contract and the contract entered into under Point c, Clause 1 of this Article will become a definite-term labor contract with a duration of 24 months.”

Accordingly, upon the expiration of a definite-term labor contract, within 30 days, the employer and the employee must sign a new labor contract. In case the two parties continue to sign a definite-term contract, they are entitled to sign this type of contract one more time. After that, if the employee continues to work, he/she must sign an indefinite-term employment contract.

Besides, according to Article 5 of Decree No. 05/2015/NĐ-CP on the amendment to the term of employment contracts with the appendix

“The term of the employment contract shall be amended only once in employment contract Appendix and not be changed in the type of the signed contract, except when the term of employment contracts with elderly employees and those who are part-time unionists are extended as specified in Clause 6 of Article 192 of the Labor Code.”

Thus, the employer is only allowed to sign at most 02 definite-term employment contracts. In this case, you've worked at the Company from 2013 to December 25, 2020. Each year, you and the Company mutually sign the definite-term employment contracts. So there have been 8 definite-term employment contracts in total. The signing of the above contracts violates the law.

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