A series of violations at the enterprise with many workers suffering from pneumoconiosis

No environmental monitoring

On August 13, Mr. Nguyen Van Hai - Deputy Head of the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board said that the interdisciplinary inspection team had just reported the inspection results at Chau Tien Company Limited (located in Nam Cam Industrial Park, Nghi Long Commune, Nghi Loc District). This is an inspection team established by the Provincial People's Committee on May 12 after receiving the report.Many workers here suffer from silicosis..

The inspection contents include: checking compliance with the law on occupational diseases, working environment, monitoring the working environment, implementing social insurance and health insurance policies for employees at Chau Tien Company Limited.

At the time of inspection, the company had 34 employees, including 28 direct workers. However, the company had not yet established a grassroots trade union. Previously, the company was licensed to produce 40,000 tons of stone powder per year and 30,000 tons of wall putty powder per year.

After that, the company expanded its investment in the product line of processing superfine white limestone powder with a scale of 180,000 tons/year and processing quartz stone powder with a scale of 150,000 tons/year. The input material is silica pebbles. The output product is white silica stone powder to be used as raw material for stone pressing plants, steel boiler lining stones of steel mills. The production process of silica stone powder at this factory has 3 stages, including soaking and drying, color reading and grain separation; coarse grinding stage and fine grinding stage.

Regarding the working environment, at the time of inspection, there were 3 workshops: fine grinding, coarse grinding and bagging, all working, some workers were transporting and loading goods, driving forklifts. These workshops all had a lot of dust deposited on the floor and machine surfaces... The grinding workshop generated noise, workers used labor protection equipment such as clothes, hats and masks, but only wore many layers of cloth masks, which was not in accordance with regulations.

According to the inspection team's report, the company used misting in the packaging and grinding workshop, and had exhaust fans on the wall near the roof of the workshop, but they were too high compared to the workers' working positions. The company provided personal protective equipment for workers, but the personal protective equipment was not suitable for the production industry according to regulations.

Regarding environmental monitoring, in March 2023, after receiving a request from the authorities, the company organized a labor environment monitoring conducted by TCS-Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd., which discovered 18 substandard samples, including 3 samples of light and 15 samples of noise. The analysis results of the Institute of Occupational Health and Environment showed that the free silicon content in raw materials and finished products was over 99%.

The inspection team concluded that from 2017 to 2022, the company did not fully comply with the provisions of the law on monitoring the working environment to control harmful effects on workers' health according to the regulations on classifying the number of workers doing heavy, toxic, dangerous and especially heavy, toxic, dangerous jobs, as well as on periodic health check-ups for workers and examinations to detect occupational diseases for workers exposed to harmful factors that pose a risk of occupational diseases or doing heavy, toxic, dangerous and especially heavy, toxic, dangerous jobs.

Regarding the implementation of the law on social insurance and health insurance policies, through inspection, it was found that Chau Tien Company Limited did not prepare a record for compulsory social insurance participation within 30 days from the date of signing the labor contract, work contract or recruitment for employees working under labor contracts who are subject to social insurance. There is a situation where employees signed labor contracts with the company, actually worked and received salaries, but the company did not pay social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance according to the time of signing the labor contract. The payment was less than the prescribed time for 10 employees. Therefore, the rights in resolving insurance policies for employees have not been guaranteed.

Illegal collection of hazardous waste

Regarding compliance with environmental laws, the inspection team discovered a series of shortcomings and limitations in this company. Specifically, the company has not prepared a report to propose granting an environmental license to submit to the competent authority for appraisal and licensing. The collection and storage of hazardous waste is not in accordance with regulations, and hazardous waste is mixed with normal waste. Hazardous waste is not collected thoroughly. The hazardous waste storage facility is not in accordance with regulations.

In addition, this company has not yet contracted with a unit that is responsible for transporting and treating common industrial waste. The warehouse for storing common industrial waste and domestic waste has not yet met the requirements. The internal drainage network of the industrial yard has not yet met the requirements. A drainage system has not been built for the entire factory.

In addition, chemicals such as Oxalic Acid, NaOH, Chrome Oxide Green, Boric Acid... used in production activities have not been arranged for separate storage, but are still stored in the workshop. Acid vapors released in the workshop affect the health of workers. The process of soaking and bleaching silica stone is carried out in tanks, without measures to collect the acid, the technology is rudimentary, the acid vapors created affect the health of workers. The silica stone crushing line is carried out using "field" technology outdoors, without measures to collect dust.

Meanwhile, the conveyor belt from the steam dryer to the fine grinding stage is an open conveyor belt, which generates dust during operation. The company has not installed a system to treat dust generated from the steam dryer and acid fumes generated from the drying process after soaking and bleaching. In the fine grinding area, a lot of fine silica dust is emitted, affecting the working environment and the health of workers.

Also through the inspection, it was recorded that many more workers here have lung-related diseases. Specifically, in addition to the 4 deceased cases, up to now, there are 5 people being treated for silicosis and 5 people are being treated for lung-related diseases. Bringing the total number of people with the disease to 14.

After the inspection, the delegation drew up a record of administrative violations and recommended that the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee impose sanctions according to his authority on Chau Tien Company Limited in two labor areas, including not conducting work environment monitoring to control harmful effects on workers' health and not organizing examinations to detect occupational diseases for workers doing heavy, toxic, dangerous and especially heavy, toxic, dangerous work.

Previously, Nghe An Newspaper had repeatedly reported that in a short period of time, a series of workers who had been working for Chau Tien Company Limited were found to have pneumoconiosis; many died quickly. Workers who were being treated and relatives of the deceased filed a petition to the local authorities, requesting that the company compensate and subsidize workers with occupational diseases and ensure the rights and safety of workers. At the same time, they requested to be examined for occupational diseases, assess the level of reduced working capacity, as well as receive support for medical examination and treatment and resolve policies for workers. On May 12, the Provincial People's Committee issued a decision to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to inspect this company.