Vietnam Draws a Hard Line Around 31 Hazardous Job Categories
Published on 10/24/2026 at 08:02 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Employers across Vietnam will have to map their own operations against a new list of 31 high-risk work groups before the start of 2027, after the Ministry of Home Affairs signed off on tighter occupational safety and health requirements on 20 October 2026.
The instrument, issued as Circular Thông t? 27/2026/TT-BNV, takes effect on 1 January 2027 and replaces the earlier Circular Thông t? 06/2020/TT-BL?TBXH dated 20 August 2020. Its legal footing rests on Article 14, paragraph 6 of Vietnam's 2015 Law on Occupational Safety and Health, together with Article 2, paragraph 14, point (d) of Decree 276/2026/N?-CP.
Where the risks sit
The catalogue spells out specific hazards and threshold values rather than general categories. Electrical work appears under Section M?c 13, while tasks carried out at heights above 2 m are covered in Section M?c 7.
Confined-space operations are listed in Section M?c 12, and work involving electromagnetic fields from 3 kHz upward falls under Section M?c 9.
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Ionising radiation, hazardous substances and explosives also come within the stricter regime. So do ergonomic and operational factors: manual lifting of loads from 20 kg, and the running of communal kitchens producing 300 or more meals a day, are both explicitly named.
Who must comply
The rules apply nationwide to state bodies, organisations and enterprises, as well as to the persons named in Article 2 of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health. Vietnamese workers employed abroad under contract are exempt.
For employers, the circular creates immediate duties. Each business must identify precisely which activities take place on its own site, assign them to the relevant risk groups, and arrange the mandated safety training for staff.
On the government side, the C?c Vi?c làm agency is to provide technical guidance on implementation. Provincial people's committees and specialised authorities have been instructed to steer the roll-out and dissemination of the requirements locally.
Penalties attached
Enforcement is backed by sanctions. Decree 283/2026/N?-CP, Article 32, sets out financial penalties: where required environmental or hygiene records are missing from a workplace, fines range from 500,000 to 1,000,000 VND.
Failing to produce safety plans, neglecting to appoint safety officers, or being found without trained first-aid personnel carries substantially heavier fines of 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 VND.
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