Questions and answers on occupational safety and health, part 1

The content of the Questions & Answers is extracted from the online seminar **“Latest Updates on Occupational Safety, Hygiene & Environment Regulations”** held on August 19, 2023.

1. Interaction to better understand Occupational Safety and Hygiene

Question 1: May I ask, for a job involving contact with chemicals, but the exposure is not continuous and the job is not on the list of arduous, hazardous, or dangerous occupations, is there any legal basis to determine if it is an arduous, hazardous, or dangerous job? Thank you.

Answer: Refer to Circular 03 on the 50 toxic chemicals, toxic gases/vapors that workers may be exposed to in certain occupations. It has two columns: short-term exposure (TWA) and full-shift exposure (STEL). The environmental monitoring unit will advise the enterprise on this. We still measure this gas, but if the worker is exposed for less than 15 minutes about 4 times, meaning the worker’s 8 working hours include less than 1 or 2 hours of exposure, this is called short time, and the assessment results will be different. If the worker is exposed to toxic chemicals, or toxic gases/vapors for the entire 8 hours, the assessment results will be different. Thus, short-term exposure will always yield a higher $\text{mg/m}^3$ threshold than long-term exposure. The consulting unit will measure for the enterprise even if the measurement is not continuous.

For example: A worker feeds materials for 15 minutes in the morning, opening bags and pouring chemicals into a tank. The measurement will only be done for those 15 minutes and assessed according to the short-term exposure column. If it is below the permissible standard, we cannot call it an arduous, hazardous, or dangerous job. However, if it exceeds the permissible standard by even one value, it is considered an arduous, hazardous, or dangerous job, and the enterprise must apply all related policies for that job to the worker.

Question 2: According to the law, is it required to assign a person to manage the first aid team?

Answer: You need to distinguish between the first aid team and the person managing the first aid team.

The management of first aid is definitely managed by the safety officer. Circular 19 on the management of occupational hygiene regulates the organization of first aid forces, and the safety officer will manage that team. So the manager is the safety department, and the medical department is established from the safety department; based on the number of workers, there will be a corresponding number of medical personnel, or if the number of workers is small, the enterprise can sign a contract with the nearest medical center in accordance with Circular 29. We will have 2 first aid groups.

Firstly, **professional first aid** which is a team of 10-30 people that all production departments of the enterprise must have. When an incident occurs, the people in the professional first aid team will be the ones providing on-site first aid to their workers. This person is one of the workers, a worker who has been trained in first aid.

Secondly, **workers in the safety training program** all learn first aid (Groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 all learn a summary of first aid knowledge), but they do not belong to the professional first aid team. To belong to the professional first aid team, they must go to a medical center or invite a trainer to the enterprise for practical training… and receive a list of certifications. The manager of that team is the person in charge of medical work, and according to regulations, enterprises of a certain size must have a person in charge of medical work.

Question 3: May I also ask whether an authorized unit needs to assess to determine an occupational disease and PPE, or is an assessment by a dedicated safety officer sufficient?

Answer: When factors causing occupational diseases appear, among the 135 occupational diseases, noise level in our factory is related to an occupational disease called **occupational deafness**. We have QCVN24 on occupational environment measurement related to occupational deafness, where the occupational environment is measured in dB. Workers exposed for 8 hours face 85 dB. For every halving of the exposure time, the dB increases by 3 dB. So, for under 4 hours, we have 88 dB, for under 2 hours, we have 91 dB… this information is from QCVN24. If we have a noise factor of 100 dB, the first question is: is there an ear there? And if there is a worker there, how long are they there?

So, if they only enter for a few minutes and leave, we equip them with earplugs, earmuffs, and anti-noise protection. A worker who only works for 15 minutes will be completely different from a worker exposed to 100 dB who stays there for the entire 8 hours. The case of short-term exposure may still be 100 dB but not exceed the permissible standard, but the case of a worker exposed for 8 hours at 100 dB exceeds the permissible standard. All of this depends on the results of the occupational environment measurement. Based on the occupational environment measurement results, and health examinations for occupational disease detection, a noise level above 85 dB means our workers are at risk of occupational deafness, even if we equip them with earplugs, earmuffs, or anti-noise protection, and even if we reduce working hours and increase rest time, the workers are still at risk of deafness.

Therefore, the health examination to detect occupational diseases for workers is definitely required and is included in arduous, hazardous, or dangerous jobs.

So, **PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)** is only one of the preventive solutions for diseases. If we do well, workers may not get sick, but even if the enterprise does well, there may still be cases where the worker did not wear the PPE, or due to the worker’s constitution, or many other reasons, they still get sick (deafness, pneumoconiosis, etc.).

Even if we implement full policies and regimes, the risk still exists, so it still falls under the category of arduous, hazardous, or dangerous occupations, and full policies must still be provided for the workers. So, for the assessment function, an expert safety assessor is sufficient. Even a good safety officer will still need to use outside consultation for some professional issues in the field of occupational safety and health because we do not have the function, do not have enough equipment, and sometimes not enough expertise. Therefore, the safety officer manages these results, and there must be someone to evaluate and be responsible for them.

Question 4: Regarding Circular 29/2021/TT-BYT, is the enterprise required to perform labor classification? If the 2022 working environment monitoring report already includes labor classification, does it have to be done again? Should this labor classification be performed together with working environment monitoring or separately? Is this labor classification method different from the old method? Why do all units want to separate working environment monitoring from labor classification since Circular 29 was issued?

Answer: Regarding Circular 29/2021/TT-BYT, enterprises are required to classify labor and must do so. If there are 25,000 workers now, the enterprise must do it for all 25,000 workers, and classify the workers according to the number of occupations.

Enterprises are required to classify their workers into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. In Circular 29, classes 1, 2, 3 are normal jobs, while 4, 5 are particularly arduous, hazardous, or dangerous jobs. Whether to perform it together with environmental monitoring or separately is up to the enterprise. If they can combine them, it’s good; the consulting service unit will perform it for the enterprise, and the enterprise can review it, or the enterprise can rely on the environmental monitoring results and do it themselves.

For any consulting report, the consulting unit will sign on one side, and the CEO of the enterprise will sign on the other. The CEO of the enterprise, before signing, must ask the person in charge of occupational safety to review the classification results to see if they are correct, because the CEO of the enterprise, the Employer, is ultimately responsible for all these reports to be submitted to the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. Therefore, refer to Circular 11 and it must be done according to Circular 29.

Question 5: Specific information about regulations related to the inspection of lifeline systems (horizontal, vertical).

Answer: Equipment inspection must comply with the list of machinery and equipment subject to inspection according to Decree 44, and from Decree 44, the strictly required equipment types are derived according to Circular 36. If you see the lifeline system listed, you inspect it; otherwise, you only perform a safety check. But in my experience, no one will inspect this lifeline system for you because it is not in the 36 groups of safety inspection equipment. Therefore, whether the entire scaffolding system or the lifeline system is safe depends on the design, construction, and installation according to the standards of the construction sector.

Question 6: According to Circular 11/2020/BLĐTBXH promulgating the list of arduous, hazardous, and dangerous occupations and particularly arduous, hazardous, and dangerous occupations. Our enterprise (manufacturing, assembling electronic components) is not on this list. However, in the production process, some jobs fall into the occupational groups included in the list of Circular 11/2020.

Example: Operating an X-Ray machine is on the list of Medical and Pharmaceutical occupations. So, how or based on what legal basis can people doing these jobs benefit from regimes related to arduous and hazardous work, such as in-kind compensation, leave, and health checks every 6 months? Thank you!

Answer: The appendix of Circular 11 does not include the electronic component manufacturing and assembly industry group, so we use the principle of searching by occupation.

Example: X-ray photography, Circular 11 lists X-ray film developing as an occupation, which is similar—working in a dark, confined room, visual strain, exposure to toxic substances… So this X-ray is about film developing, not using X-ray equipment, so basically, the X-ray occupation of our enterprise is not found here. Thus, to see if that worker’s job is arduous, hazardous, or dangerous, the enterprise must measure X-ray radiation according to Circular 29. This falls under the category of harmful radiation screening. If it meets the permissible X-ray standard, it is a normal job with a periodic health check once a year. If it exceeds the permissible X-ray standard, it is an arduous, hazardous, or dangerous job, requiring a health check every 6 months. If it meets the standard, it is normal and requires a periodic health check once a year.

Question 7: Procedure for rinsing bottles, jars, and drums containing hazardous chemicals?

Answer: The procedure for rinsing bottles and jars containing hazardous chemicals means that this hazardous chemical job is already classified as an arduous job. It is a job that requires strict safety standards (Circular No. 06), falling into Group 3 in safety training. This procedure is called a safety procedure, and you are required to compile a rinsing procedure.

Question 8: Regarding training groups according to Decree 44/2016: Group 4 is for employees not belonging to groups 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. So, for industrial production machine operators who are not operators of strictly required equipment, should they still belong to Group 4 or should they be moved to Group 3? Because, in the operation of the enterprise, industrial production machine operators still face many hazards when operating machines: electricity, compressed air, moving equipment, even lifting, repairing, and troubleshooting equipment, etc. Training only in Group 4 does not seem reasonable. Can they be moved to Group 3 for training?

Answer: The consulting unit will help the enterprise understand better. When you let workers study Group 3, it means they are learning more deeply than Group 4. When you are uncertain whether to classify them into Group 4 or Group 3, you should classify them into **Group 3**. And you should choose the highest risk factor for the workers to study.

For example: pneumatic machines, transportation equipment, even lifting equipment. They perform these tasks in a work environment where they do not specialize in electricity, nor do they specialize in lifting. We should choose the most dangerous factor and have them study Group 3. We should do this. If we push them down to Group 4, the training is too little. We cannot manage it, and we must also make workers aware that they are doing dangerous work.

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2. Occupational Safety Training Capacity of An Toan Nam Viet

An Toan Nam Viet is currently a prestigious and high-quality occupational safety training center in Vietnam. With occupational safety training sessions taking place continuously at production workshops, factories, or construction sites across the country (63 provinces and cities in Vietnam).

REGISTER FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY TRAINING SERVICE

**Occupational safety training** license

 
• An Toan Nam Viet has been inspected by the **Department of Work Safety of the Ministry of Labor – Invalids and Social Affairs** and granted a certificate of eligibility to operate occupational safety and hygiene training. This further strengthens our capacity for **occupational safety training** activities.

Materials and lectures

 
• Before occupational safety training materials are put into **OSH training courses**, they have been reviewed and censored to ensure that the lectures are always correct in terms of knowledge and effective when applied.

 

• The teaching methods of the lecturers are synchronized according to the teaching standards of **An Toan Nam Viet**, which are methods that experts in **occupational safety and hygiene training work** have researched and concluded during the teaching process to bring the highest knowledge absorption efficiency for students.

Facilities

 
• Controlling factors in the classroom that affect the training process will increase teaching performance and students’ knowledge absorption efficiency.

 

• Our **facilities supporting training courses** always arrange spacious classrooms that meet standards for area, lighting, training equipment, etc.

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3. National Working Environment Monitoring Center

Nam Viet’s **Working environment monitoring center** is a professional unit for monitoring and measuring the quality of the working environment **throughout every province and city in Vietnam**. With a team of experienced **monitoring specialists**, the center uses modern measuring equipment, ensuring accuracy and reliability.

REGISTER FOR WORKING ENVIRONMENT MONITORING SERVICE

In addition to providing monitoring services, the center also supports customers in planning, handling, and monitoring working environment issues. With the motto “customer is the center”, always bringing customer satisfaction, meeting all customer needs, and committing to providing the best solutions for businesses.

With investment in techniques, technology, and human resources, Nam Viet’s monitoring center has been and is becoming one of the reputable units in the field of working environment monitoring in Ho Chi Minh City with the following goals:

 
• We always value brand reputation and the quality of our products and services.

 

• We provide customers with the best and most suitable things possible.

 

• Together with a team of experienced and professional Masters and Engineers with the desire to protect the environment and benefit businesses.

 

• Coming to the Nam Viet Environmental Monitoring team, your company will receive professional service with experts in the field of monitoring. At the same time, get the best cost incentives.

The process of implementing working environment monitoring at Nam Viet includes the following basic steps:

 
• Before performing working environment monitoring, our company always ensures that machinery and equipment serving working environment monitoring are adjusted and calibrated in accordance with the law.

 

• Perform the correct and sufficient working environment monitoring process committed to the Department of Health.

 

• Truthfully notify the results of working environment monitoring to the employer.

 

• In case the results of working environment monitoring do not ensure safety for workers, Nam Viet company will support proposing remedial solutions and the labor facility will implement as follows:
   
  • Implement measures to improve working conditions to minimize the impact of harmful factors and prevent and fight occupational diseases.

   

  • Organize health checks to detect occupational diseases and work-related diseases early for workers in positions with unsafe working environments.

   

  • Compensate in kind for workers according to the provisions of labor law.