Building and developing Safety Culture in production in Vietnam

To build and develop Safety Culture in production in Vietnam to get good success, it is necessary to do research theoretical and practical basis of Safety Culture, analyzing the Safety Culture development of the world in combination with practices in Vietnam; based on these, it can result in giving full concept of Safety Culture in production suitable with Vietnam condition. Using these results, build the model of Safety Culture, apply it into practice then try to complete the model so that it can be widely applied in Vietnam.

The National Institute of Labour Protection (NILP) in co-operation with Vietnam Occupational Safety and Health Association (VOSHA) conducted the research: “Studying theoretical and practical basis and building the model of Safety Culture in production in Vietnam” in 2013-2015 period to solve the above problems.

2. The main achieved results

The authors of the research conducted many activities focusing on the following issues:

2.1. Studying theoretical and practical basis of safety culture in production.

– The authors collected materials related with Cafety Culture that have been studied by many researchers in the world, then deeply analyzing to find out their basic, common and most logical points of these researches in the world. Also, authors conducted survey on awareness and result of application of Safety Culture  in enterprises in Vietnam. Combining all these activities, the authors come to conclusion about the view point, requirement and content of Safety Culture  in production and give the basis of definition of safety culture  in production in Vietnam.

– To have full definition of Safety Culture in the production which reflects practices in Vietnam and also satisfies the concepts and definition that are given in international literature, the authors address many issues relating with basic viewpoint and requirement to build and develop Safety Culture in production in Vietnam. They are as follows:

+ Building and developing Safety Culture in production in Vietnam is inevitable tendency because Vietnam tries to become industrialized country and internationally integrated;

+ Vietnam government has the point of view and policy supported to build and develop Safety Culture in production;

+ Closely following natural condition, people feature, level of socio-economic development, tradition and culture character of Vietnam to build Safety Culture suitable with Vietnam;

+ It needs to consider Safety Culture as core value, basic content of OSH in new human civilization period and an important content of enterprise’s production culture.

2.2. The concept and definition about safety culture in production in Vietnam

Until now there has been no full definitions on Safety Culture in production in Vietnam. When addressing safety culture it often cited the conclusion of ILO conference taken place in June, 2013 to explain this concept in Vietnam. However, we would like to have it more clearly and feasible to apply in Vietnam condition.

Before giving a definition, the authors agree on the basic points as follows:

– From the aspect of political, social and economic points, to have good Safety Culture in production all level of authority, management, employers and employees it should have correct perception, respect rights of human in ensuring OSH as basic and important rights;

– From the aspect of mental, social ethnic and traditional values, it needs to have attitude of humanity, responsible and self-conscious behavior with shared and co-operative love  in OSH;

– From the aspect of legislation, all individual and organizations, especially employers and employees should commit to follow well OSH regulations and policy;

– From the aspect of behavior and response, it needs to have action program and measures to ensure OSH while prioritizing  prevention measures as leading ones.

Based on these, the authors give the following definition of Safety Culture  in production in Vietnam:

Safety Culture in production in Vietnam is principal content and core value of OSH activity in every enterprise where all people have correct perception on OSH, considering to have good safety and health, no accidents and diseases is the basic and human rights that need to be respected. People should know well about the stipulation of OSH regulation and policy as well as traditional values of Vietnam and need to have correct attitude and behavior, recognizing responsibility, obligation and clear commitment, being self-conscious and co-operative to implement well OSH and action plan, giving priority to prevention measures; timely evaluating and reviewing so that OSH continuously is improved. Thus, OSH is a career of culture, humanity, suitable with new era of development and becomes invaluable treasure and tradition of enterprise.

This is a full definition of Safety Culture in production in Vietnam. In particular circumstances, after having good understanding of Safety Culture concept, the definition can be shortened, emphasizing just on some main points for easy memory.

2.3. Building the model of safety culture in production.

– To build a model of Safety Culture in production, the authors have to set up criteria of the model so that it covers all invisible value of enterprise which has safety culture not only shows the safety climate but also shows that core and basic activity from OSH perception and belief to OSH measures and action results of enterprise.

The criteria of the model of Safety Culture in production needs to cover as follows:

1. OSH policy of enterprise, the commitment of leadership on OSH;

2. Knowledge, attitude and belief of all people of enterprise. Bringing into play national tradition, cultural character of Vietnam in implementing OSH;

3. Clear responsibility and obligation of all people, especially employers and employees on OSH;

4. Having all OSH records, especially clarifying all hazards that workers are exposed to and measures available to control them;

5. Having had OSH management system;

6. Having OSH action plan (includes policy, administration, technological measures, budget, manpower to implement OSH), while prioritizing prevention measures as leading ones.

7. Participation of employees, trade union who is their representative;

8. Having good method of receiving OSH information for everyone. Having good OSH promotion and training for all target people.

9. Having good audit, monitoring and evaluation on OSH at enterprise level;

10. Having good notification, investigation and reporting on occupational accidents and diseases, ensuring publicity, clearance on occupational accidents and diseases and other incidents;

11. Timely evaluation and review to improve OSH activity;

12. Respecting and awarding those who have good OSH achievement; and fining those who violate OSH regulation;

– The authors also proposed method to classify level of Safety Culture level of enterprise.

+ Level of Safety Culture: after referring experience of authors in the world, we proposed 5- level of Safety Culture of enterprise. For each level, enterprise should satisfy criteria in responding; the highest level is 5 which is almost perfect in OSH implementation and continuous improvement;

+ The authors have proposed groups of criteria and marking-scheme to evaluate level of Safety Culture of enterprise. There are 4 groups of criteria including 23 criteria and marking scheme of 50 corresponding 5 levels of Safety Culture of enterprise.

2.4 Application of proposed model into practice

– At first, the authors prepared the guidance what needs to do to apply the model of Safety Culture in enterprise. There are 10 tasks needed to do, from setting up the plan, selecting enterprises for case study, forming team, learning the content and to training team staff, employers and employees about the main points of the model; conducting activities, monitoring and evaluating the result of application; learning experiences and giving the level of  Safety Culture to enterprise and writing final report;

– The authors selected 04 enterprises with different products and scope of production, level of technology and located in different areas of Vietnam for case study;

After around 18 months of application, the authors have good experience and knowledge to supplement and improve the model of Safety Culture of enterprise.

– First time in Vietnam, the topic of Safety Culture has been fully studied, from theoretical and practical basis of Safety Culture, giving definition, fully and generally on  Safety Culture of enterprise to building the model of Safety Culture of enterprise that can be applicable to Vietnamese condition, applying this model into enterprises, having experiences to improve it for wider application in the future;

– The authors have compile promoting materials to introduce Safety Culture for Vietnamese people, to compile and produce CDs on Safety Culture of enterprise in Vietnam;

– The authors have set up petitions to government of Vietnam and other governmental agencies proposing them to have policy to build and develop Safety Culture of enterprise in Vietnam more strongly and widely in the future;

– The results of our research contributes to diversifying researches and applications of Safety Culture of enterprise in the world and also contributes to development of occupational safety and health in the period of wide globalization and international integration at present.

3. Conclusion

The information presented in this paper is result of almost 3-year study of Vietnamese scientists with hope that Safety Culture in production is at attention and more developed in Vietnam, not only contributing to social-economic development of Vietnam but also contributing to OSH development in the world, in the sake of safety and health of employees-the most valuable treasure of all countries.

(Source: nilp.vn)