Can Employers Swap Rest Days and Arrange Make-Up Work?

Sep 22, 2026

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Can Employers Swap Rest Days and Arrange Make-Up Work in Vietnam?

In practice, many employers want to swap rest days or arrange make-up work to address operational disruptions or optimize workforce planning. For example, a company may let employees take a day off due to a power outage, storm, flood, or recovery work after an incident, and then ask them to work on another day that would normally be their weekly rest day.

Some employers also consider this approach to extend public holiday or Lunar New Year breaks, allowing employees to take an additional day off before or after the official holiday and later make up the time on a weekly rest day.

While this arrangement may appear practical from an operational perspective, employers should be cautious from a labor law compliance standpoint.

Table of Contents

Does Vietnamese labor law recognize “swapping rest days” or “make-up work”?

Current Vietnamese labor regulations do not provide a separate legal mechanism for “swapping rest days” or “make-up work” in the sense of simply replacing a normal working day with a weekly rest day.

This means an employer should not automatically treat work performed on a weekly rest day as normal work merely because the employee previously took another day off.

If the weekly rest day has already been defined in the company’s internal labor regulations, work schedule, or shift schedule, any work performed on that day should be assessed under the rules on overtime.

What happens if employees work on a weekly rest day?

Under Article 111 of the 2019 Labor Code of Vietnam, employees are entitled to at least 24 consecutive hours of rest each week.

In special cases where the work cycle does not allow weekly rest, the employer must ensure that employees receive, on average, at least four rest days per month.

Employers have the right to arrange the weekly rest day on Sunday or another fixed day of the week. However, this arrangement must be recorded in the company’s internal labor regulations.

Therefore, if employees work on a weekly rest day that has been properly established, the working time may be treated as overtime on a weekly rest day, rather than normal make-up work paid at the regular wage rate.

Work suspension due to storms, power outages, or other incidents

In cases such as storms, floods, power outages, fire incidents, or other events that require the employer to temporarily stop work for safety or operational reasons, employers should also consider the rules on work stoppage pay.

Under Article 99 of the 2019 Labor Code, work stoppage pay depends on the cause of the stoppage, such as:

The employer’s fault;
The employee’s fault;
Objective reasons, including electricity or water failures not caused by the employer, natural disasters, fire, dangerous epidemics, relocation at the request of a competent state authority, or economic reasons.

Therefore, if employees are required to stop working due to objective events, employers should not resolve the situation only by “swapping” the rest day and requiring work on a weekly rest day at the normal wage rate. The company should determine the correct legal nature of both the stoppage day and the later working day.

Extending public holiday or Lunar New Year breaks

Some companies may wish to give employees an additional day off before or after a public holiday or the Lunar New Year holiday, and then require employees to work later on a weekly rest day.

From an HR management perspective, this may help employees enjoy a longer holiday and allow the company to plan production more flexibly. However, if the later working day falls on an established weekly rest day, it may still be regarded as overtime on a weekly rest day.

Obtaining employee consent, majority agreement, or including the arrangement in a collective bargaining agreement or internal labor regulations may be useful for workforce management. However, internal arrangements cannot reduce employees’ statutory minimum entitlements, including weekly rest and overtime pay.

Practical compliance notes for employers

To reduce the risk of payroll errors or labor disputes, employers should:

Clearly define weekly rest days in the internal labor regulations;
Communicate work schedules, rest days, and shift schedules in advance;
Avoid automatically applying a “make-up work” mechanism if the make-up day is a weekly rest day;
Treat work performed on an established weekly rest day as overtime where required;
Apply work stoppage pay rules where employees are unable to work due to qualifying events;
Keep records of notices, employee consultation, work schedules, and timesheets;
Review collective bargaining agreements, internal labor regulations, and wage policies to ensure they do not fall below statutory requirements.

Legal basis

Article 99 of the 2019 Labor Code of Vietnam on work stoppage pay;
Article 111 of the 2019 Labor Code of Vietnam on weekly rest;
Relevant provisions of the 2019 Labor Code of Vietnam on overtime work and overtime pay.

Conclusion

Vietnamese labor law does not provide a separate mechanism for “swapping rest days” or arranging “make-up work” that allows an employer to convert an established weekly rest day into a normal working day.

If employees work on a weekly rest day already defined in the company’s internal labor regulations or work schedule, that time may be treated as overtime. Employers should carefully assess work stoppages, holiday extensions, and revised working schedules to ensure payroll compliance and reduce labor dispute risks.

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