What are the conditions for foreign workers to sue in Vietnamese Court?

According to point a, clause 1, point b, clause 7, Article 188 Labor Code 2019 as follows:

Procedures and procedures for conciliation of individual labor disputes by labor conciliators

1. Individual labor disputes must be resolved through conciliation procedures by a labor conciliator before requesting resolution by the Labor Arbitration Council or Court, except for the following labor disputes which are not required. forced to go through conciliation procedures:

a) Regarding labor discipline in the form of dismissal or in cases of unilateral termination of the labor contract;

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7. In cases where it is not required to go through the conciliation procedures specified in Clause 1 of this Article or in cases where the conciliation time limit specified in Clause 2 of this Article has expired but the labor conciliator does not conduct conciliation or in cases where conciliation has expired, If the resolution fails according to the provisions of Clause 4 of this Article, the disputing parties have the right to choose one of the following methods to resolve the dispute:

a) Request the Labor Arbitration Council to resolve it according to the provisions of Article 189 of this Code;

b) Request the Court to resolve.

Accordingly, foreign workers are required to first resolve the dispute through conciliation. If conciliation fails, they can file a lawsuit at a competent Vietnamese court.

In addition, foreign workers need to pay attention to the current filing period in Article 190 Labor Code 2019 as follows:

The statute of limitations requires resolution of individual labor disputes

1. The statute of limitations for requiring a labor conciliator to conciliate an individual labor dispute is 06 months from the date of discovery of the act in which the disputing party believes its legitimate rights and interests are violated.

2. The statute of limitations for requesting the Labor Arbitration Council to resolve an individual labor dispute is 09 months from the date of discovery of the act in which the disputing party believes its legitimate rights and interests are violated.

3. The statute of limitations for requesting the Court to resolve an individual labor dispute is 01 year from the date of discovery of the act in which the disputing party believes its legitimate rights and interests are violated.

4. In case the requester can prove that due to force majeure events, objective obstacles or other reasons as prescribed by law, the request cannot be made within the time limit specified in this Article, then the time of the event Force majeure, objective obstacles or such reasons do not count towards the statute of limitations for requesting resolution of individual labor disputes.

Accordingly, the statute of limitations for requesting conciliation is 06 months, requesting the Court to resolve is 01 year from the date of discovery of the act in which the employee believes that his/her legal rights and interests are violated.