Hanoi (VNS/VNA)- In the 39-degree Celsius heat of a summer day, carpenters in the craftvillage of Minh Duc in Phu Tho province diligently chop up large wooden logs tomake furniture in their home-based wood workshops.

Although the job involves the use of saws and inhaling wood dust, no one in thevillage uses protective equipment, the local online newspaper Phu Tho reported. “It’stoo hot and cumbersome to put them on,” said Du The Hoa, 17, working in hisgrandfather’s workshop, naked from the waist up. “Besides, the drilling,chiseling and hewing are not really dangerous.”

That was the explanation he got from his grandfather, Du Thanh Tinh, with 50years of experience in the craft, for not wearing protective clothing and amask. The 73-year-old carpenter had his right hand cut off in a saw accidenttwo years ago.

Labour safety is being ignored both by employers and labourers at craftvillages, resulting in thousands of work-related accidents and cases ofoccupational disease each year.

Some 14 million labourers are working at 1,200 traditional craft villages inthe country, the infonet.vn online news website reported.

About 90 percent of them are directly exposed to heat, dust, noise, andchemicals, which make them more prone to electric shocks and burns, as well asskin, respiratory and digestive diseases.   

About 7,900 labour accidents occurred in the country last year, 60 percent ofthem resulted from non-compliance with safety regulations, according to the theMinistry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

Roughly a hundred labour accidents occur each year in the metal craft villagein the capital city’s outer Thach That district. Most work by the 5,000labourers involves cutting corrugated sheets, which can easily hurt workers’hands.

The working conditions in most craft villages are unsafe, according to Luu DuyTan, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Village Association. For example, the VanPhúc silk craft village in the capital’s Ha Dong district, with 700 looms,contains fire hazards, but only 10 of dozens of silk enterprises are equippedwith fire extinguishers.

Their equipment is often outdated, with some assembled manually from old andused parts that no longer function properly, Tan added. “Most productionestablishments are not equipped with ventilation, vacuum and toxic treatmentsystems. Little attention has been paid to buying social and health insurancefor employees.”

The reason behind these shortcomings is that most craft villages are formedarbitrarily by residents themselves, according to MOLISA.

Employers at these villages often get too caught up in making profits and payless attention ro ensuring basic rights, such as insurance coverage, for theiremployees. Some do not report labour accidents on purpose, according toMOLISA’s Department of Labour Safety.

Lack of awareness of their rights to such things as labor contracts andinsurance makes labourers particularly vulnerable to accidents and robs them ofthe right to compensation from employers, according to the department.

Nguyen Ngoc Dung, head of the Department of International Cooperation under theVietnam Cooperative Alliance, said that apart fromraising labourers’ awareness of labour safety, regulations onensuring their rights should be imposed on owners of craft production units andcraft enterprises.

“[They] should provide labourers with periodic health checkups, especially withthe dangerous working environment at craft villages,” he said. “Labourersshould also be informed of the regulations on labour safety, food safety, andworking environment sanitation.” Local authorities should also join inensuring labour safety at craft villages, he added.

“The authorities should require enterprise owners to provide social, health andcompensation insurance for not only contract employees but also seasonalemployees,” he said.-VNA