Risk of occupational safety

(Baonghean) - If many years ago, ensuring occupational safety and health (OSH) was only of concern to state-owned enterprises, now many non-state-owned enterprises have initially made some positive changes in this work. However, this number is still modest, the number of violations is still high...

Established in 2003, Lien Hiep Nghe An Company Limited has its headquarters and factory located in Zone C - Nam Cam Industrial Park, with 39 workers. The company's main business is to buy, sell and process superfine white stone powder. To ensure occupational safety and health for workers, the Company established a grassroots labor protection council and a labor safety and fire prevention committee along with a safety and hygiene network of 5 people whose duties are to supervise and carry out the unit's self-inspection of occupational safety and health.

In addition, the company has established labor regulations, regulations on operating machinery and equipment; fully equipped employees with personal protective equipment; arranged medicine cabinets for first aid in case of accidents. Equipment with strict labor safety requirements such as 1.5-ton forklifts and compressed air tanks are all inspected for technical safety. Mr. Le Van Tien - a worker of the company said: "Every year, the company organizes training on labor safety and hygiene and periodic health check-ups, so we are more aware of implementing measures to ensure labor safety, safety of life and health."

White stone production at Truong Loc Company Limited (Quy Hop).

Located in Nghi Phu Industrial Park (Vinh City), Song Thang Private Enterprise is a facility specializing in the production of wooden floors. Workers have to work in conditions with a lot of wood dust and loud noise. Determining that ensuring labor safety and health for workers is an important factor, the enterprise has fully equipped workers with protective clothing. In particular, the use of labor protection has been included in the monthly emulation classification criteria, so most workers strictly comply. Mr. Pham Minh Duong - Chairman of the Enterprise Union said: "Thanks to being reminded regularly, workers all comply with labor regulations, and those who violate will be punished according to regulations. Only by doing so can ensuring labor safety and health be effective."

Ms. Hoang Thi Huong - Chief Inspector of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said: Implementing the national program on occupational safety and health, along with propaganda, supervision, inspection and examination by functional sectors, many enterprises - including non-state enterprises, have conducted self-inspections, screening and detecting safety risks to develop preventive measures at the workplace and production workshops, contributing to improving the working conditions and environment of workers, especially those in production units under toxic conditions and high risks. Many non-state units have focused on investing funds in safety training, building strict management processes for occupational safety and health work to become increasingly systematic".

However, there are still many non-state enterprises that do not really pay attention to occupational safety and health. In 2013, the interdisciplinary inspection team of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Provincial Labor Federation inspected and examined the implementation of occupational safety and health laws at 61 enterprises, of which 48 enterprises (including 42 non-state enterprises) violated. Five units were fined a total of 34 million VND, of which three were non-state enterprises: Nghe An Automobile Mechanical Joint Stock Company, An Binh Construction Company and Dong Bac Trading and Construction Company. In the first quarter of 2014, through inspection and examination, three units were found to have many violations of occupational safety and health laws at five non-state enterprises. Tan Nam Construction Joint Stock Company (Vinh City), its main business lines are construction of all kinds of houses, construction of railway and road works. The total number of employees working at the company is 263 people.

Despite having a large number of workers and being in an industry prone to occupational accidents, during the inspection of occupational safety and health at the company last April, the interdisciplinary inspection team discovered a series of violations of occupational safety and health, including many essential contents: not having made periodic reports on occupational safety and health; not having established a Labor Protection Council, a safety and health network; not having arranged for officers to do occupational safety and health work; not having developed an annual occupational safety and health plan; not having carried out self-inspection of occupational safety and health; not having classified workers doing heavy, toxic, and dangerous jobs to implement the prescribed regimes; not having developed internal regulations and procedures for operating machines and equipment; not having organized periodic health check-ups for workers and especially not having declared and not having conducted technical safety inspections for equipment with strict requirements on occupational safety and health such as crawler cranes, electric winches, etc.

In addition, some enterprises have implemented occupational safety and health work but not fully. For example, Truong Giang A Company Limited, specializing in the production and trading of household electrical appliances (electrical cables, electrical cabinets, electric fans, etc.), has a factory located on Dang Thai Mai Street, Bac Vinh Industrial Park (Vinh City). In recent years, the company has focused on implementing a number of occupational safety and health contents but there are still some shortcomings: it has not developed an annual occupational safety and health plan; has not arranged medical staff or contracted with medical facilities to take care of workers' health; the company's managers and workers with strict occupational safety requirements have not been trained in occupational safety and health; has not organized occupational safety training for workers; Not yet establishing regulations, operating procedures for machines, equipment and safe working measures - labor hygiene... These are also common mistakes that businesses often make in ensuring labor safety and hygiene in recent times.

Mr. Nguyen Dang Duong - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said: "It must be affirmed that occupational accidents can occur in any enterprise, regardless of small or large, state-owned or non-state-owned. Therefore, ensuring occupational safety requirements in enterprises must be implemented seriously, fully and effectively. The current limitation is that the inspection and examination of the implementation of occupational safety and protection regimes by all levels, branches and functional units, although it has been strengthened, is still not strict in some places, not keeping up with the rapid development of enterprises - especially non-state-owned enterprises, leading to unsafe working conditions. To overcome the above limitations, organizations, departments and sectors need to continue to thoroughly grasp the policies of the Party and State on occupational safety and health, regularly visit units and enterprises; promote propaganda work in many diverse forms. On that basis, each sector, organization and unit needs to develop a specific action plan. on appropriate occupational safety and health work to limit occupational accidents and diseases...”.

Article and photos:Minh Quan