This information was presented in the conference reviewing 18 years of occupational safety and health law (OSH) enforcement and development orientation to 2020 recently organized in Hanoi. The event was organized by the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, and attracted the participation of quite a few experts, businesses and concerned persons.
According to the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, during the past 10 years, there have been an average of nearly 6,000 work accidents killing 600 people every year. However, the statistics from hospitals, clinics and health establishments shows that it is 3 times as high as the figures reported by the Ministry. Therefore, the actual number of accidents is probably much greater.
Sharing at the conference, experts stated that work accidents have rapidly risen during the past 18 years, from 840 cases in 1995 to 3,405 and 6,3737 in 2000 and 2007 respectively. Deaths caused by work accidents increased from 264 cases in 1995, to 406 and 621 in 2000 and 2007, respectively. From 1992 to 2000, the annual average number of works accidents reached 3,000, causing 350 deaths. In the period of 2001-2012, there 6,000 work accidents were the annual average, injuring 6,000 people and killing around 500 cases deprived life of 600 peoples. Occupational diseases tend to increase in terms of the number of the suffered and disease type. For the first nine months of 2012 alone, there were 142 work accidents, injuring 156 people. Among these, 31 fatal accidents killed 35 people and left 10 people seriously injured.
According to the experts, work accidents often happen in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with backward production facilities and little focus on labour safety law. Construction and mining are the fields that witness the most accidents. Besides, one of the most serious concerns lies in the fact that 40 percent of farmers never read the user warnings on the labels of chemicals used. Instead, drugs are used arbitrarily. Out of 100,000 workers, 799 are victims of electrical accidents and 856 are victims due to the misuse of machinery. 1,700 people’s health are affected by plant protection chemicals.
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The project entitled “Propaganda, training activities to improve the quality of OSH in VCCI member SMEs”, led by Business Office for Sustainable Development of VCCI, is designed to promote propaganda on the compliance with OSH regulations of enterprises, especially VCCI members. The main activities will focus on propaganda, training on work insurance and OSH.
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Assessing the observance of OSH regulations, Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen revealed that after 18 years of implementation of OSH law, many enterprises have complied with the law in a reluctant way, while industrial accidents and occupational diseases continue to occur. The training on OSH compliance for employers and employees is still modest and management is still loose. Worse still, the violation of OSH regulations in SMEs is getting rather prevalent.
The Minister requested to improve work environment and conditions so as to reduce work accidents and occupational diseases. Simultaneously, it is necessary to contribute to the development of OSH law and detailed guidelines in a feasible and consistent way.
Accordingly, the specific objectives as to 2015 include the reduction of data work accidents by 5 percent, increase of work environment monitoring establishments by 10 percent. Besides, it is expected that there will be an increase of 2,000 SMEs which effectively apply OSH management model. Over 1,000 craft villages, 5,000 cooperatives and 30,000 SMEs will be directly accessed to information on OSH. At the same time, it is widely agreed by all the delegates that draft OSH law will be finalized to be submitted to the Government and National Assembly for review and approval.
Thu Ha
Vietnamese
