Apprenticeship or probation at Dien Chau General Hospital?

(Baonghean) -According to the report, “At the end of 2010, Dien Chau General Hospital accepted 56 students for probation in various departments and offices. During the probation period, they were not entitled to any benefits. On May 27, 2013, the hospital fired all 56 students...”.

To clarify this issue, we went to Dien Chau to meet the "insiders". PTB, a graduate of Traditional Medicine (Dien Phuc, Dien Chau), said: "We voluntarily wrote an application to work at the hospital to get an internship, not to be accepted as reported". CTN, a graduate of Nursing (Dien An, Dien Chau), also confirmed: After graduating, with the desire to try out the profession, he and his friends wrote an application and were approved by the hospital's leadership to be accepted as an apprentice. It was just an apprenticeship, so we did not ask for any benefits.

Different from the above opinions, PTL’s family (Dien Thinh, Dien Chau) reflected: It is said to be an apprenticeship but in fact it is a probationary period. Because no one naturally applies to work at the hospital for free for several years. The purpose of “apprenticeship” here is to approach the hospital’s payroll. The hospital has accepted people so they have to be responsible, working as a construction worker for a day is also worth a hundred and fifty thousand, let alone…

Regarding the above issue, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh, an officer of the Organization Department of Dien Chau General Hospital, said: “Most of the children were accepted as apprentices at various times in 2011. According to the principle, the “apprentices” should have paid training fees, but the hospital did not collect them (!?)”. Ms. Dinh Thi Hai Chau, former Head of the Nursing Department of Dien Chau General Hospital, who directly assigned the children to departments, said: The children were assigned to the departments. On average, each department had 6 “apprentices”. They all did well in all the tasks like a hospital employee. From cleaning, patient care, to injections, infusions… Therefore, at that time, the hospital staff was very relaxed because the children had taken over some of the work, and their salaries and bonuses were still guaranteed.

Talking to us, Mr. Tran Khac Tien, Director of Dien Chau General Hospital said: “All 56 students who applied for internships received applications. After entering, the hospital assigned them to 9 departments. They were allowed to perform tasks such as injections, infusions, etc. They were not bound by time, and there was no one to accompany them…!”. Regarding the reason for the students’ resignation, Mr. Tien said: “There were cases where the broker told the parents that they had already obtained contracts from the Department of Health for the students. Meanwhile, the Department of Health never signs work contracts for anyone without a request from the facility (hospital). Some people even wondered why my child had been an apprentice for 2 years but still had not been recruited… Given the above situation, to avoid rumors and bad public opinion, as the director, I decided to let the students currently working in the departments take a leave of absence and not continue their apprenticeship from May 27, 2013.”

Mr. Le Giang Nam, Head of the Department of Organization and Personnel of the Department of Health, said: In May 2012, the Department of Health and the Department of Home Affairs inspected and found that the number of pre-recruitment trainees at Dien Chau General Hospital was over 50 cases, which was inappropriate, so they asked the unit to stop using labor in this form. Mr. Nam also said that the problem of trainees first comes from the need to improve students' knowledge after graduation, along with the current situation of hospital overload, the tasks increase while the number of staff remains the same, so there is a lack of human resources to take care of patients. This problem arises from the needs of both sides.

Although Dien Chau General Hospital said that it accepted 56 students as “apprentices”, there are still many questions about whether it is an “apprenticeship” or not? Not only that, Dien Chau General Hospital is not a vocational training facility, so accepting people for “apprenticeship” and “training” is not in accordance with its function. It is unreasonable for the hospital to employ workers for a long time without any policies. Because if we compare the number of apprentices in each department, there are 6 people, while there is a department of staff and employees with only 13 people (according to Ms. Dinh Thi Hai Chau, former head of the Nursing Department of Dien Chau General Hospital), which means the number of apprentices is almost half of the department’s staff and employees.

So with the assigned tasks, will these “apprentices” do the so-called “overloaded” tasks of the hospital, or will they do it in place of the doctors and nurses in the departments they are assigned to “apprentice”?! Although they have to undertake many normal tasks like the doctors and nurses in the departments during the so-called “apprenticeship” process, the “apprentices” do not have any benefits! Is it possible that Dien Chau General Hospital has abused the labor force, appropriated the wages that the workers - the “apprentices” should have received?

Another issue here is that, during the "apprenticeship" process at the hospital, the "apprentices" do not have a supervisor or guide (according to the hospital director - PV), so if there are any professional mistakes during the "apprenticeship" process, the consequences will be very unpredictable, at that time who will be responsible? Not only that, "learning" without a "teacher" cannot be called "learning"!? Therefore, the Department of Health needs to rectify and clarify this issue, to avoid the "apprenticeship" case like the one that happened recently at Dien Chau General Hospital. As for those who voluntarily write an "apprenticeship" application, this should also be considered a lesson, they should not be too impatient to find a job and disregard the fact that they only need to be hired, without requiring a regime, while this should have been agreed upon before starting work, to avoid labor abuse like in this case.

Lawyer Nguyen Vinh Dien (Vinh Dien and Associates Law Firm) said: The above students are not in the case of vocational training according to the provisions of labor law because Dien Chau General Hospital is not a vocational training facility; nor are they in the case of probation because the hospital and the students have not signed a labor contract... The hospital should not accept them as "apprentices" for such a long time without any policies, creating hope for them and their families that they will be hired.

Article and photos: Dang Nguyen