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VIETNAM <br />47 <br />family -owned garment workshops near Ho Chi Minh City. One shelter reported <br />that some children were drugged during the year to keep them awake and working <br />longer hours. <br />d. Acceptable Conditions of Work <br />The law requires the government to set a minimum wage and adjust it based on <br />consumer price index changes. New minimum wages took effect on October 1, as <br />follows: the monthly minimum for unskilled laborers at private enterprises was <br />between VND 1.78 million (approximately $85) and VND 2 million ($95) in urban <br />areas, and VND 1.4 million ($67) and 1.55 million ($74) in rural areas. For <br />employees working for the state sector, the monthly minimum was VND 830,000 <br />($40). The government defined the poverty line for the period 2011 -15 as VND <br />400,000 ($19) per month for rural households and VND 500,000 ($24) for urban <br />households. <br />The government set the workweek for government employees and employees of <br />companies in the state sector at 40 hours and encouraged the private business <br />sector and foreign and international organizations that employed local workers to <br />reduce the number of hours in the workweek to 40 hours, but it did not make <br />compliance mandatory. <br />The law sets normal working hours at eight hours per day, with a mandatory 24- <br />hour break each week. Additional hours require overtime pay at one - and - one -half <br />times the regular wage, two times the regular wage for weekdays off, and three <br />times the regular wage for holidays and paid leave days. The law limits <br />compulsory overtime to 16 hours per week and 200 hours per year but provides for <br />an exception in special cases, with a maximum of 300 overtime hours worked <br />annually, subject to stipulation by the government after consulting with VGCL and <br />employer representatives. The law also prescribes annual leave with full pay for <br />the public and private sectors. <br />The law requires the government to promulgate rules and regulations that provide <br />for worker safety and provides that workers may remove themselves from <br />hazardous conditions without risking loss of employment. <br />By law a female employee who is engaged to be married, pregnant, on maternity <br />leave, or caring for a child under one year of age may not be dismissed unless the <br />enterprise closes. Female employees who are at least seven months' pregnant or <br />