Vietnam Decree 337/2025: Electronic Labour Contracts from July 2026

Vietnam's electronic labour-contract compliance system rests on four legal instruments, each addressing a different layer — from top-level recognition of digital signatures to platform-level operational rules.

At the top sits the 2023 Law on Electronic Transactions (No. 20/2023/QH15), which gives digital signatures the same legal effect as paper signatures; effective 1 July 2024, it is the foundation that makes electronic labour contracts judicially recognised. Below it, Decree No. 337/2025/ND-CP provides the implementing rules — five chapters and thirty articles covering the full contract lifecycle, from creation and identity verification through digital signature and timestamp binding to platform synchronisation, with signing rules applying from 1 July 2026. Decree No. 13/2023/ND-CP (PDPD) governs personal-data protection, so all electronic contract processes involving employee personal data must comply with Vietnamese rules on storage, access, security and cross-border transfer. Finally, Decree No. 137/2024/ND-CP, promulgated in October 2024, establishes the NELCP national platform under Ministry of Home Affairs supervision as the operational backbone for contract registration and verification.

The July 2026 deadline is firm, so companies should start preparation immediately: NELCP technical specifications are still being finalised and integration testing takes time.

On the HR and operations side, audit whether the current HR system supports digital signatures, timestamps and API integration with eContract providers; register enterprise digital certificates for the legal representative and authorised HR personnel; ensure employees complete VNeID Level 2 account binding or eKYC verification; adjust contract templates to include the NELCP-required metadata fields per the Decree annex; and plan a phased rollout starting with new hires and contract renewals before full migration. On the legal and compliance side, confirm whether the eContract service provider has NELCP API connectivity; verify that supported CA certificate types are licensed by Vietnamese authorities (for example VNPT-CA); review cross-border data-transfer compliance under Decree 13/2023 (PDPD); document the signing workflow for audit and labour-inspection purposes; and assess whether any contract types require wet-ink signatures as a fallback.

Four points matter most for multinational employers.

Decree 337 encourages electronic contracts but does not abolish paper contracts, so companies can phase digitisation gradually and electronic and paper can coexist during the transition. Registration strengthens evidence rather than merely adding compliance: the combination of digital signatures, trusted timestamps, provider certification and a unique NELCP contract ID significantly raises the evidentiary value of electronic contracts in labour disputes, which is a practical advantage and not just a regulatory burden. CA certificate connectivity is the critical path, because obtaining Vietnam-compliant CA digital certificates is the main operational challenge for foreign companies — partnering with a provider that has established cooperation with Vietnamese CA institutions such as VNPT-CA can significantly reduce implementation friction. And data localisation intersects with PDPD: because Decree 13/2023 governs how employee personal data is stored and transferred, a signing platform that stores data outside Vietnam requires the necessary consent and data flows that meet PDPD cross-border transfer requirements.

Vietnamese employers must take specific actions to comply with Decree 337 before the July 2026 deadline.

Employers should confirm how their signing or labour-contract service provider submits the required data to the National Electronic Labour Contract Platform, verifying the provider's actual integration status, data mapping, submission responsibility, error handling and receipt evidence against the current implementation guidance. Existing paper-based employment contracts do not need to be re-signed electronically, but new contracts and renewals after July 2026 must use electronic format, so migration should be planned for renewals to avoid a rush at the deadline. Because Decree 337 requires signer identity to be verified, employers should use a platform that supports Vietnamese identity methods — CCCD (chip-enabled ID card), eKYC via Vietnamese banks or VNeID digital identity — since SMS OTP alone does not meet the standard. Employees must consent to electronic signing, and a paper-based alternative should be provided for those who cannot or do not wish to sign electronically; the signing interface should also be available in Vietnamese and accessible on mobile devices, as many workers use smartphones as their primary device.

eSign.AI supports Vietnam electronic labour-contract signing through its confirmed VNPT integration, including certificate-backed digital-signature workflows and evidence capture; NELCP submission responsibilities, production connectivity, required data fields and platform receipts should be verified separately for the deployed service.

For submission, confirm the available integration, the responsible submitting entity, the required data fields, the platform testing status and the receipt evidence returned by the production service before relying on automated NELCP synchronisation. eSign.AI supports the identity-verification methods accepted in Vietnam — CCCD chip-enabled ID cards, VNeID digital identity and bank-based eKYC — so employers can configure the required tier per document type. The signing UI is available in Vietnamese, and contract content, signer names and identity data fully support Vietnamese diacritics and Unicode, with the audit trail and evidence package generated in both Vietnamese and English for cross-border employers. Manufacturing employers onboarding hundreds of workers a month can use bulk send to deliver employment contracts to all new hires in one batch, with each worker signing individually via CCCD or VNeID.