HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Compliance with occupational safety and hygieneregulations remains lax, affecting the lives of workers and their families, anofficial from the HCM City Federation of Labour said at a conference heldon September 11.

Nguyen Thanh Do, headof the Policy Department under the HCM City Federation of Labour, said manypolicies and measures had contributed effectively to reducing labouraccidents and occupational diseases.

“However, the numberof work-related accidents is still high in the country,” he said.

Representatives oflabour federations of Hanoi, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Can Tho and HCM City attendedthe conference which discussed solutions to limit work-relatedaccidents and occupational diseases.

According to theMinistry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs' occupationalsafety report for 2018, nearly 8,000 work-related accidents were reportedlast year, killing 1,039 and injuring more than 8,200.

The main cause ofoccupational accidents was lack of compliance with regulations onoccupational safety and hygiene of businesses and workers, accounting for 46 percentof incidents.

A majority ofemployers failed to create safe working procedures, did not provide training onlabour safety, and did not guarantee the quality of protective equipmentand workers' working condition.

Violations ofoccupational safety and hygiene regulations and work safetyprocedures were accounted for more than 18 percent of the incidents. Another 35percent of incidents were caused by other reasons.

Ta Van Duong of Hanoi’sLabour Federation said that inspection, examination and preventivemeasures must be carried out thoroughly at businesses.

“The most importantelement in raising awareness of employers and workers is observationof occupational safety and hygiene regulations,” said Nguyen Van Tuan,President of the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial ZonesAuthority’s Trade Union.

Trade unions andbusinesses need to work with other units tobuild a network of businesses that can learn from each otherabout labour safety, he said.

Dinh Thi Thanh Ha, VicePresident of Da Nang city’s Labour Federation, said that work-relatedaccidents usually occurred at construction sites, mostly small constructionprojects or works built by subcontractors, creating difficulties forcontrol and inspection.

Foreign-investedcompanies and local enterprises in industrial parks and export processing zoneshave the highest level of awareness about labour safety and hygieneregulations.

“They are alwaysconcerned about human factors and regular maintenance of equipment andmachinery, so the number of labour accidents has significantlyreduced,” she said.

Shesaid that ministries, departments and agencies should tryto improve the legal system regulating labour safety andother regulations in various fields, increase inspections of occupationalsafety and hygiene regulations, and strengthen the handlingof violations of labour safety.

In addition,changing the minimum allowance required for occupational safetyand hygiene standards in hazardous or dangerous jobs shouldbe considered, she added./.