How to pay trade union dues and when is it exempt from paying trade union dues?

Lawyer Nguyen Huu Hoc - Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association - said that according to current regulations, the level of trade union dues is equal to 2% of the salary fund used as the basis for compulsory social insurance contributions for employees.

According to the provisions of Decree 105/2026/ND-CP detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Trade Union Law on trade union finance (effective from May 16, 2026), the subjects contributing trade union funds include: Enterprises, non-100% salary-receiving public service units from the State budget, cooperatives, cooperative unions and other agencies, organizations, and units using labor in accordance with the law.

Trade union contributions are made once a month or once every 3 months at the same time as compulsory social insurance contributions for employees depending on each different subject.

Lawyer Hoc added that for public non-business units that partially ensure regular expenditures, the source of trade union dues comes from the State budget, professional revenue sources and other legal revenue sources (if any) and is accounted for in the unit's expenses. For public non-business units that fully ensure regular expenditures and investment expenditures, public non-business units that fully ensure regular expenditures, the source of trade union dues that the unit self-guarantees comes from professional operating revenue sources, other revenue sources (if any) and is accounted for in the unit's expenses. As for the remaining agencies, units, organizations, enterprises, cooperative unions, cooperatives: The source of trade union dues comes from the financial sources of agencies, units, other organizations, enterprises, cooperative unions, cooperatives and is accounted for in the production, business, and service expenses in the period according to the provisions of law.

Regarding which cases will be exempt from paying trade union dues? Lawyer Hoc said that according to the provisions of Article 11 of Decree 105/2026/ND-CP, there will be 2 cases exempt from paying trade union dues.

The first case is that enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions dissolved according to the provisions of the Enterprise Law and the Cooperative Law are considered and issued decisions by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor or the provincial-level Labor Federation to exempt the amount of unpaid trade union dues according to the decentralization regulations of the General Confederation of Labor when the trade union participates in the debt settlement plan (including trade union dues) of enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions dissolved.

The second case is that enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions that carry out bankruptcy according to the provisions of the Enterprise Law, Cooperative Law, Bankruptcy Law, Recovery Law, and Bankruptcy are considered by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour or the provincial-level Labor Federation and issue a decision to exempt the amount of unpaid trade union fees according to the decentralization regulations of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour when the trade union submits a request to apply bankruptcy procedures to enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions.

Thus, only cases where enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions dissolve or go bankrupt are considered for exemption from the amount of unpaid trade union dues, while other enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions will not be considered for exemption from the amount of unpaid trade union dues," lawyer Hoc emphasized.

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