From Inclusive Education to Inclusive Employment: Corporate Social Responsibility Toward Employees with Disabilities Under Vietnamese Law

Abstract

Inclusive education cannot be evaluated only by access to schooling; it must also be assessed by the capacity of learners with disabilities to enter, remain in, and advance within decent work. This article re-examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) toward employees under Vietnamese law by narrowing the analysis to employees with disabilities and the school-to-work transition. It argues that Viet Nam has developed a relatively dense legal framework for inclusive employment through the Law on Persons with Disabilities, the 2019 Labour Code, the 2024 Law on Social Insurance, and the 2024 Law on Trade Unions. Yet these instruments mainly establish a compliance floor. A rights-based conception of CSR requires enterprises to move beyond minimum legal obligations by embedding reasonable accommodation, accessible recruitment, disability-inclusive occupational safety, social protection, and cooperation with vocational and inclusive education institutions into corporate governance. Methodologically, the article employs doctrinal legal analysis, normative legal interpretation, and selective benchmarking against the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ILO Convention No. 159, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and contemporary CSR scholarship. The article contributes to special and inclusive education research by positioning enterprises as institutional actors in post-school inclusion. It proposes a three-layer model of employee-oriented CSR: legal compliance, inclusive human-resource governance, and education-to-employment partnerships. The article concludes with recommendations for enterprises, policymakers, trade unions, and educational institutions.