Can employees accumulate all annual leaves to take a one-time vacation?

How many annual leaves do employees have?

In accordance with Clause 1, Article 113 of the Labor Code 2019, the employee who has been working for the employer for the full 12 months is entitled to a fully paid annual leave as stated in his/her labor contract, in particular:

- 12 working days: Employees working in normal conditions.

- 14 working days: Juvenile employees, employees being persons with disabilities, or persons doing heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs;

- 16 working days: Persons doing extremely heavy, hazardous, or dangerous jobs.

Within that, the list of heavy, hazardous, dangerous jobs or occupations and extremely heavy, hazardous, dangerous jobs or occupations are prescribed in Circular No. 11./2020/TT-BLDTBXH.

Therefore, employees shall have 12 - 16 annual leaves depending on various objectives.

However, an employee’s annual leave shall be increased based on working seniority if he/she has worked for a long time. In particular, Article 114, the Labor Code 2019 prescribes that For every full 5 years during which the employee has worked for the employer, 1 day shall be added to the number of annual leave days of the employee.

For the employee who has worked for the employer for less than 12 months, the number of annual leave days shall be calculated in proportion to the number of months he/she has worked (Clause 1, Article 113, Labor Code 2019). 

Can employees accumulate annual leaves to take a one-time vacation?

Clause 4, Article 113, Labor Code 2019 prescribes:

4.  The employer shall arrange a detailed timetable for annual leaves of their employees after consulting them and shall notify it in advance to them. The employee may reach agreement with his/her employer on taking of annual leaves in installments or aggregate leaves of every 3 years at most.

Accordingly, employees’ annual leaves shall be implemented in accordance with the annual schedule prescribed by the employers. The employer must take consultation with employees to decide the schedule of annual leaves.

However, employees can be flexible in using their annual leaves, above regulations also allow both employers and employees to make the agreement on taking annual leave many times or accumulating once every 03 years.

It means that employees can make agreements with employers to accumulate annual leaves to take a one-time vacation.

If the employee has given up work at their own discretion for 5 or more consecutive days without the acceptance from employers, the employer may unilaterally terminate a labor contract in accordance with Point e, Clause 1, Article 36 of the Labor Code 2019. 

Here is the relevant information on the accumulation of annual leaves to take a one-time vacation.