Vietnam to impose ATM wage payments

Direct wage payments to employee bank accounts linked to automatic teller machine cards may be written into law, indicated the Department of Labour-Salary.

Deputy director Hoang Minh Hao said payments via bank transfer were mentioned in the draft of the Labour Code, which has been proposed to the government for comments, as an alternative to cash payments.

Hao said the intended legislation would improve transparency and employee rights and make it easier to solve money transfer and withdrawal issues.

Work payments to bank accounts have become popular in big cities with ATM systems, and bank accounts could now pay electricity, water and telephone bills and money transfer easily, he added.

However, ATM cards still remain unfamiliar to a majority of employees, especially to workers in industrial zones and those in suburbs and remote areas.

Experts agree that putting bank account payments into law must be accompanied by the development of the ATM system throughout the country. The bank account wage payments will then be encouraged rather than considered a compulsory method, said Hao.