DECREE NO. 337/2025/ND-CP: ARE ENTERPRISES REQUIRED TO ENTER INTO OR CONVERT ALL PAPER-BASED LABOR CONTRACTS INTO ELECTRONIC LABOR CONTRACTS?

On 24 December 2025, the Government promulgated Decree No. 337/2025/ND-CP on electronic labor contracts (“Decree 337”), marking an important milestone in modernizing the methods of entering into and performing labor contracts in Viet Nam. Decree 337 further elaborates the principle-based provisions of the Labor Code and, for the first time, establishes a comprehensive legal framework governing the conclusion, performance, and management of electronic labor contracts in practice.

In this article, ATA Legal Services provides an overview of the key provisions on electronic labor contracts (“e-LCs”) under Decree 337, including:

1. Electronic labor contracts have the same legal validity as paper-based labor contracts

Under the Labor Code, a labor contract concluded via electronic means in the form of a data message has the same legal validity as a written contract. Although the legal validity of e-LCs has been recognized since 2021, the lack of detailed implementing regulations has, in practice, limited their widespread adoption by enterprises.

Against this background, Decree 337 is the first legal instrument to comprehensively and separately regulate electronic labor contracts. In particular, it clearly defines an electronic labor contract as a contract concluded and established in the form of a data message, having the same legal validity as a paper-based labor contract.

Effective time of an electronic labor contract:
An electronic labor contract takes effect from the time the last party applies its digital signature, together with the timestamp attached to the digital signatures of the contracting parties and the certification of the data message by the eContract service provider, unless otherwise agreed by the parties.

2. Conditions for entering into electronic labor contracts

2.1. General conditions

• Use of digital signature software and digital signature verification tools that meet legal requirements;

• Implementation of information security measures and technical contingency plans to ensure uninterrupted operation in case of incidents;

• Storage solutions ensuring the integrity of electronic document data;

• Functionalities to identify contracting parties, authenticate identities, and record acceptance/consent to the contents of the labor contract;

• Functionality to certify electronic labor contracts;

• Functionality to convert between electronic labor contracts and paper-based labor contracts;

• Other aggregation, statistical, and reporting functions as required by applicable laws;

• Within 24 hours from the time the last party signs, the electronic labor contract must be transmitted to the Electronic Labor Contract Platform to be assigned an identification code (“ID”) in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Home Affairs;

• Appendices to the contract, agreements on temporary suspension, and notices of termination of electronic labor contracts must be executed via the eContract system and associated with the same contract ID to ensure traceability.

2.2. Conditions applicable to employers and employees entering into electronic labor contracts

• Mandatory identity authentication through legally required documents:

  • For individuals: Citizen Identity Card / Electronic Citizen Identity / VNeID Level 2;

  • For organizations: Establishment Decision / Enterprise Registration Certificate and information on the lawful representative;

• Mandatory use of digital signatures and timestamp services;

• Mandatory issuance of an account by the Ministry of Home Affairs on the Electronic Labor Contract Platform.

2.3. Conditions applicable to eContract service providers

• Use of digital signature software;

• Implementation of security measures, storage solutions, and data integrity assurance for electronic documents;

• Functionality to certify electronic labor contracts;

• Functionality to convert between electronic and paper-based labor contracts.

3. Electronic labor contracts shall be stored on a platform managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs

Previously, electronic labor contracts were stored by enterprises themselves. Under Decree 337, electronic labor contracts shall instead be centrally stored on the nationwide Electronic Labor Contract Platform, which is built and managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Collected and updated data include electronic labor contracts, appendices, information on enterprises’ labor usage, and electronic contract transaction logs.

• Each labor contract is assigned a unique ID for management purposes;

• Employees and employers are granted accounts to access the platform for searching, verifying, and managing their respective contract data.

4. The electronic labor contract storage system will be interconnected to support administrative procedures

The Electronic Labor Contract Platform will be connected to and share data with national databases, sectoral databases, the National Data Center, public service portals, administrative procedure processing systems, ministerial- and provincial-level data integration platforms, and other information systems of state authorities.

Such connectivity and data sharing aim to achieve, inter alia, the following objectives:

• Supporting the resolution of administrative procedures;

• Serving data exploitation and usage by state authorities, organizations, and individuals;

• Acting as a tool for receiving reports on labor utilization and the implementation of eContract service provision.

Decree 337 takes effect from 1 January 2026. The Electronic Labor Contract Platform must be operational from 1 July 2026.

Regarding the question of whether enterprises are required to enter into electronic labor contracts, the answer is no.
Employers and employees may choose to continue using paper-based labor contracts or to adopt electronic labor contracts. Both forms have equal legal validity. However, the State currently encourages the use of electronic labor contracts to replace paper-based contracts in human resource management and in the handling of administrative procedures related to labor contracts.

In line with the national digital transformation objectives, and in addition to the inherent advantages of electronic data management systems, we anticipate that further policies may be introduced in the near future to “encourage” the use of electronic labor contracts. Such incentives may include, for example, exemption from document submission requirements, priority processing of administrative procedures due to the elimination of verification and authentication steps as information is already integrated into the system, and non-cash payment of social security benefits¹.

Accordingly, enterprises—particularly large-scale employers with a sizeable workforce—should closely monitor these developments and proactively study, develop, and their electronic labor contract systems at an early stage in order to fully leverage these advantages and policy incentives.

¹ On 24 November 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee issued Plan No. 175/KH-UBND on the development of the digital economy and digital society in the fields of labor, employment, and social security in Ho Chi Minh City in 2025, which sets out various measures encouraging the execution of electronic labor contracts between employees and employers within the city.