A ceremony to launch a month-long national campaign on preventing occupational risks to reduce accidents is scheduled for May 6 on Nguyen Hue pedestrian street in Ho Chi Minh City.
A worker installs steel rods to prepare for concrete basement.
As heard at a press conference on the campaign in Hanoi on April 18, it will feature inspections of sectors prone to accidents, meetings, training courses, conferences, forums, and painting exhibitions.
At the press conference, Nguyen Anh Tho, deputy head of the Bureau for Safe Work under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), said annual communications programmes like this have contributed to limiting the number of work-related accidents and diseases.
He said awareness of public agencies, employers and employees has been improved, particularly after the National Assembly’s Law on Occupational Safety and Health took effect on July 1, 2016.
The number of accidents in high-risk occupations is declining, the official added, citing the Vietnam National Coal – Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) as examples. According to him, in 2017, Vinacomin recorded 16 deadly accidents, an annual decrease of six cases, while EVN Northern Power Corporation saw only two accidents taking place with no one killed.
Tho attributed the upbeat outcomes to safety management practices, which are capable of controlling risks to workers’ safety.
According to statistics released by the MoLISA, 8,956 occupational accidents occurred in Vietnam last year, affecting 9,173 people, of which 928 died.
Ho Chi Minh City recorded the highest number of work-related fatalities, with 123, followed by Hanoi, with 66.
A report from the Health Environment Management Agency showed that nearly 300,000 people contacting harmful factors at work engaged in medical examinations for occupational diseases. Of the total, more than 38,000 received positive test results.-VNA