Occupational safety and health in some enterprises in Viet Nam – Experience and solutions

The Vietnam National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (VNNIOSH) is a national scientific institute of Vietnam. The Institute was established by the Vietnamese Government on May 1, 1971 under the name National Institute of Labour Protection (NILP).

VNNIOSH regularly conducts research, consulting and supporting activities for enterprises and production facilities to implement OSH work, implement solutions to ensure safety and health for workers.

During the period from 2016 to 2022, the Occupational Safety Center (OSC) is a unit of VNNIOSH that has performed the task of consulting, inspecting and evaluating the implementation of OSH for a number of enterprises from the North to the South Vietnam.

With the advice of OSC experts, enterprises have made progress in all aspects in complying with the requirements of the Law on OSH: Organization of the apparatus to perform OSH work; manage dossiers of machines, equipment, supplies and substances subject to strict OSH requirements; manage employees doing jobs with strict requirements on OSH; electrical safety management, chemical safety, pressure equipment operation safety; implement solutions to ensure safety, improve working conditions, take care of workers’ health, etc.

Through continuous monitoring data: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 (not implemented in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Result of monitoring OSH implementation at enterprises 2017-2022

Overall, we found that:

• There has been progress in the implementation of OSH at the monitoring enterprises. Especially the following activities: Organizing the apparatus, assigning responsibilities, planning the implementation of the annual OSH work. Investment in all aspects for OSH has also increased continuously. The management and implementation of solutions on OSH and health care for employees are also done better.
• The propaganda and training on OSH and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) are not very good. Some businesses and employees still have difficulties in choosing and using the right PPE to prevent hazards in the workplace.
• PPE has made progress, but it has not yet met expectations. Not the right type and not the required quality.
• The working environment has been improved but not yet developed. In some places, dust, noise, temperature, etc., still exceed the allowable standards.

Some difficulties in implementing OSH activities that enterprises often encounter are:

• Leaders of some enterprises have not paid due attention to OSH.
• Enterprises often change jobs, so it is difficult to organize and assign people to do OSH work in accordance with the law. The assigned person does not have enough time to get acquainted and experience to perform the task well. The reduction of management staff also makes it difficult to arrange specialized people. Especially the arrangement of medical staff in the enterprise.
• Safety work: Electrical safety, chemical safety and equipment operation safety with strict requirements on OSH are not really good because the technology used is old and out-dated without funding to invest in upgrading.
• PPE supply: Due to the small Vietnamese market, the supply of quality PPE is still limited in both quantity and quality. The prices of good quality PPE are still high, exceeding the ability of enterprises to pay. Especially the means of respiratory protection to filter toxic gases are both lacking, expensive and without quality certification. This leads some businesses to use the wrong type, leading to a number of unfortunate fatal accidents. The management and quality control of PPEs with special uses also have many limitations, and the quality of these PPEs have not been controlled when circulating on the market.
• Working environment: Businesses also face great difficulty in improving working conditions due to limitations of technology. Although many efforts have been made, with the use of old technology, dust and noise are very difficult things to control.
• Employees’ awareness of OSH is not high, they are still subjective and contemptuous, do not actively implement the rules and regulations on OSH and do not follow the working process properly.

Through the above activities and assessments, we have drawn some experience and solutions as follows:

• Enterprises need to pay more attention to OSH. Stable personnel must be arranged for OSH work, good and experienced personnel will ensure the system’s good operation.
• The legal document system is often complicated, so to fully implement it, enterprises should consult with specialized units.
• Enterprises need to require suppliers of materials, chemicals, PPE, etc., to provide a full certificate of goods quality when purchasing.
• It is necessary to apply advanced management standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 4500, and activities such as 5S, etc., to maintain and improve the quality of the working environment.
• Enterprises need to cooperate with agencies, units and organizations… to strengthen propaganda, education and training for employees to raise awareness of OSH so that they have good awareness, consciousness and proactive implementation of OSH activities.
• To recommend State management agencies to strengthen the quality management of PPE and have solutions to support businesses in providing good quality PPE at reasonable prices for the market.

In order to ensure good safety and health, and also improve working conditions, it is necessary to actively participate and coordinate with all three parties: The State, enterprises and employees with good advice from specialized agencies.

M.Sc. Le Duc Thien, Ph.D. Nguyen Anh Tuan

 ​

(Source: Vnniosh.vn)