The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) launched the survey on social media on the afternoon of April 7, said Vice President Ngo Duy Hieu, after grassroots unions and workers flagged growing frustration with the official 2026 schedule.

The confederation will weigh the responses and consult with the Ministry of Home Affairs before making any formal proposal, though Hieu acknowledged the survey is being run just three weeks before the holidays begin.

The friction comes from the calendar itself. Hung Kings Commemoration Day, observed on the 10th day of the third lunar month, falls on Sunday, April 26 this year. Under the Labor Code, that pushes the day off to Monday, April 27.

The next public holiday, the April 30-May 1 break, is separated from it by two regular workdays, April 28 and 29. For employees at companies that operate a six-day workweek, the April calendar becomes a stop-start sequence: work Saturday, off Sunday and Monday, back to work Tuesday and Wednesday, off Thursday and Friday, back to work Saturday, off Sunday.

The fix grassroots unions are proposing is straightforward: shift Monday’s make-up day to Wednesday, April 29, or to Saturday, May 2. Either move would bridge the second holiday into a more continuous block.

According to Ho Thi Kim Ngan, Deputy Head of the VGCL’s Labor Relations Department, businesses, unions and workers in Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City have been the most vocal in pushing the idea. Moving the day to April 29 would create a three-day break running through May 1. Moving it to May 2 would stretch the break to four days, from April 30 through May 3.

Vietnam’s labor authorities have so far signaled they are not inclined to make the change. On April 3, Vu Trong Binh, Director of the Department of Employment under the Ministry of Home Affairs, said there was no plan to swap the April holidays and that the schedule would follow the Labor Code. The ministry’s published 2026 calendar gives one day off for Hung Kings Day and two days for April 30-May 1, applied to civil servants, public employees and state-sector workers.

Some private-sector employers have not waited. Several companies have already told staff they will swap in regular workdays or use annual leave to bridge the two holidays into a single 8-to-9-day stretch. Others are sticking strictly to the legal minimum.

For workers on the statutory schedule, the length of the break depends on how many days off they get each week. Those with a two-day weekend get three continuous days off for Hung Kings Day, from Saturday, April 25 through Monday, April 27, and another four-day stretch from Thursday, April 30 through Sunday, May 3. Workers with only Sunday off get just two days for each holiday: April 26 and 27, then April 30 and May 1.

Employees who work on a weekly rest day during a holiday period are entitled to at least 200% of their normal wage under the Labor Code. If they work on a weekly rest day that also coincides with a public holiday, the rate rises to at least 300%.