A view of the conference with businesses on problems when implementing the Law on Occupational Safety and Health.

Speaking at the event, Ha Tat Thang, head of the Department of Occupational Safety, said the Law on Occupational Safety was approved at the ninth session of the 13th National Assembly, in which new polices were issued such as expanding regimes and policies for victims of workplace accidents; reinvestigating cases of occupational and labour accidents at the request of social security agencies; and offering training courses on occupational safety and health for participants of occupational accident insurance. The Government also issued Decree No 37/2016/NĐ-CP, stipulating and guiding some articles of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health regarding occupational accident insurance or compulsory occupational disease insurance.

According to MOLISA, from 2016 to 2018, Viet Nam Social Security spent VND1.9 billion (US$82,000) annually on injury examinations, VND148 billion on social welfare and VND67 billion to support job changes. In 2018, VND200 million and VND43 billion were used to cover preventative mechanisms of occupational accidents and diseases as well as hold safety training courses for participants in compulsory occupational accident and disease insurance, respectively. In 2017, the training cost for more than 38,000 people was VND96 billion.

However, after three years of implementation, the new policy faces challenges. The act of reinvestigating cases of occupational accidents at the request of social security agencies is not clearly regulated, making it hard to implement. The low level of funding support is a barrier to holding training courses on occupational safety and health. Rates and methods of payment for occupational accidents and diseases are still being changed.

At the conference, representatives discussed several topics of the overview of the legal system on occupational safety and health and insurance policies for occupational accidents and diseases; the situation of occupational safety and health in Ha Noi; draft amending Decree No 37/2016/ND-CP stipulating a number of articles on compulsory labour accident and occupational disease insurance; some new points on training of occupational safety and health; as well as new regulations on labour hygiene in the health sector./.