Are enterprises forced to convert to electronic labor contracts from 01/07/2026?

Along with the development of science and technology, more and more businesses are using electronic contracts to establish labor relations with employees. However, the application of electronic labor contracts in Vietnam is still very single, arbitrary, depending on the infrastructure and governance capacity of each enterprise. In order to uniformly implement electronic labor contracts nationwide, the Government has issued Decree No. 337/2025/ND-CP dated December 24, 2025 regulating electronic labor contracts effective from January 1, 2026 (Decree 337).

Businesses are using electronic contracts to establish labor relations with employees

1. The conclusion and implementation of electronic labor contracts are encouraged

An electronic labor contract is a contract that is concluded and established in the form of a data message, in accordance with the provisions of the labor law and the law on electronic transactions, and has the same legal validity as a paper labor contract[1].

Electronic labor contracts signed before January 1, 2026 but are still valid or have not been fully implemented may continue to be implemented. Meanwhile, newly signed electronic labor contracts from January 1, 2026 will be centrally managed and governed by Decree 337. Enterprises that still use paper labor contracts are encouraged by the State to apply digital technology to the implementation of e-contracts without mandatory conversion when this Decree takes effect.

Although Decree 337 only encourages but does not oblige enterprises to use electronic labor contracts, [2] electronic contracts in labor relations are becoming a digital transformation trend in the context of technological development. The use of digital labor contracts increases flexibility in space and time, saving costs for the parties in the process of signing contracts. Currently, the mechanism for implementing electronic labor contracts has been more closely regulated by the State through Decree 337, ensuring the legal validity of this type of contract in transactions with third parties such as tax authorities, social insurance agencies, and banks,... creating a solid legal basis for employees and enterprises to comprehensively digitize the process of entering into and implementing labor contracts. However, the application in practice requires both enterprises and employees to meet the conditions and methods of entering into contracts according to the law on electronic transactions and the new provisions in Decree 337.

Decree 337 sets out a series of additional requirements for the entire contract conclusion process, from creation, digital signing, authentication, to storage, retrieval, and management of contracts,... Specifically, electronic labor contracts must be digitally signed by enterprises and employees. The contract is time-stamped and attests to the data message. An electronic labor contract takes effect from the time these steps are finalized, unless otherwise agreed by the parties.[3] Lacking one of the above factors, the electronic labor contract will not be effective and will not be recognized by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This recognition will be done by attaching an identifier to the contract.

Also according to the provisions of this Decree, July 1, 2026 is the date of actual application and operation of the electronic labor contract platform system. This is the slowest timeline for technical implementation. At this time, the technical infrastructure to ensure that when the electronic labor contract platform is put into operation, the legal corridor (which has been in effect since the beginning of the year) will be implemented synchronously.

2. Conversion of forms between paper contracts and electronic contracts

Decree 337 stipulates that the converted labor contract is valid as the original if it complies with the provisions of the law on electronic transactions, including ensuring data integrity, accessibility and use in complete form.In case of converting a [4] contract from paper to an electronic version, the enterprise needs to meet the same conditions as when concluding and performing an electronic contract, and at the same time confirm the accuracy and completeness of the contract compared to the original and take responsibility before law for the conversion content.[5]

It can be predicted that the conversion of paper to electronic labor contracts will gradually become more popular as more and more businesses aim to modernize processes, optimize costs and increase transparency in human resource management. However, enterprises still need to pay attention to the statutory requirements for the conversion of contracts from electronic to paper copies to serve administrative procedures or proceedings that require the provision of paper copies of labor contracts.

The entire process of entering into an e-labor contract must be carried out on a valid information system

3. Must use services from a professional provider

According to the new regulations, the entire process of entering into an e-labor contract must be carried out on a valid information system (hereinafter referred to as eContract) linked to the e-Labor Contract Platform developed and managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The reporting on the situation of employing labor, carrying out administrative procedures, and related electronic transactions will also be carried out through eContract.[6] This requires businesses to invest a recurring fee to maintain using eContract services from professional providers. The eContract services required to implement a valid e-labor contract include:

Labor contract creation, retrieval and management services: At the time of signing the contract, enterprises are recommended to review electronic labor contract templates from eContract providers (if any) and make customizations according to needs. Or enterprises can build their own version of the electronic labor contract on the eContract to ensure the main contents in accordance with the labor law. According to Article 14 of Decree 337, all information and documents related to labor contracts (as well as activities of accessing, amending, supplementing, suspending and terminating contracts) must be collected, updated and managed on the Electronic Labor Contract Platform of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Therefore, in the process of performing the contract, the enterprise needs to update the changes in the contract by itself, and at the same time request the eContract provider to send and synchronize other relevant data through the eContract.[7]

Public digital signature authentication service: Decree 337 stipulates that both enterprises and employees must have a certified CKS and use the timestamp issuance service.[8] In general, most businesses have used CKS as required by law in many administrative procedures related to insurance, tax, and business licensing. Enterprises need to ensure that the validity and use of this CKS in the conclusion of electronic labor contracts, absolutely do not use unauthenticated image signatures or scanned signatures. To enter into an electronic labor contract, enterprises need to integrate their valid CKS into the eContract to check the CKS and digitally sign and attach time stamps. Enterprises should also guide and support employees to register to use CKS at professional suppliers to ensure the legal validity of labor contracts between the parties.

In addition, the authentication of the identity of the signatory is a mandatory requirement for the parties to enter into an electronic labor contract according to Decree 337.[9] Specifically, the eContract will collect information to identify the employee and the legal representative of the enterprise at the time of digital signing to check, compare, and ensure the accuracy of the information recorded on the papers of the parties. According to Article 6 of Decree 337, the data to be collected is personal data, biometric data of employees and legal representatives of the enterprise, including factors and biological characteristics that are difficult to counterfeit, with a low overlap rate such as fingerprints, faces, etc  iris, voice,...

At the same time, the eContract must take technical measures to confirm that the parties have agreed to the contents of the contract. Through the process of management, control, and risk assessment, including measures to prevent impersonation and suspicious transactions in the digital signing process, the eContract provider can refuse or suspend the process of digitally signing the electronic labor contract of the parties.[10]

Electronic labor contract authentication service: According to Decree 337, electronic labor contracts must be authenticated by the eContract provider before the Ministry of Home Affairs inspects, checks and issues identification codes. Electronic labor contract authentication service includes 02 activities: (i) storing and confirming the integrity of the contract and (ii) sending and receiving contract guarantees.[11] According to the law on electronic transactions, eContracts will store proof of identity of the sender and receiver, the activity log of the secured delivery service and all related information exchanges. The activity of proving the integrity and unaltered integrity of the contract during the sending and receiving process and the authentication of the sender and receiver before sending are also carried out by the eContract.

It can be seen that the digitization of labor contracts is a new standard that the Vietnamese labor market sets for businesses in the context of national digital transformation. On that basis, Decree 337 has created a unified legal framework for the signing, management, and implementation of electronic labor contracts. Building transparent labor relations, improving human resource management capacity and selecting professional eContract providers are the key points for businesses to solve the problem of digitizing the labor contract signing process.