Protecting Workers during a Pandemic

A frequent propaganda   

Mr. Do Dinh Hiep, Chairman of the Grassroots Trade Union (GTU), Vietnam Precision Industrial Joint Stock Company - VPIC (Trang Bom District), said that in the spirit of cooperating with enterprises to prevent epidemics, the GTU officers regularly went to the workshop to propagate and raise awareness of employees. Accordingly, the majority of employees are very serious about wearing masks and measuring temperature before entering the workshop.

Vietnam Precision Industrial Joint Stock Company - VPIC currently has over 1.3 thousand employees. During the first outbreak, this company was affected to the production situation. However, the GTU promptly consulted with Company’s leader to propose specific production plans, efforts to stabilize production, not causing employees to lose their jobs. A good sign is that starting in June, the production situation in enterprises has been flourishing, orders are plentiful again, employees have regular jobs and income has improved significantly.

According to Mr. Do Dinh Hiep, in order to ensure the safety and health of the employees, the GTU always stands by and encourages the employees to actively work, at the same time, arranging the mid-shift meals, the resting place reasonably, creating a sense of comfortable for employees.

Similarly at Changshin Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Vinh Cuu district), where more than 36,000 workers are working, in these days, GTU officers are also vigorously strengthening epidemic prevention and protection of employees' health. Vice Chairman of Company's GTU Doan Thi Kim Loan said that as soon as the epidemic broke out again, GTU officers rushed to “go out early and return late” to remind workers to wear masks and monitor their temperature measurements before going to work, while directing the Trade Union to actively propagate and stabilize the employees' psychology.

According to Ms. Loan, with a large workforce, if the disease spreads to enterprises, it will greatly affect production activities of enterprises as well as employees' jobs. Therefore, to prevent the spread of the disease, the GTU has applied more drastic measures to prevent epidemics; At the same time, it encourages employees to feel secure in production, not panic and listen to false information on social networks. Also, this enterprise and its GTU have equipped masks, donated hand sanitizer and gifts that are essentials to support employees in a timely manner.

Making employees feel safe and secure

Receiving the attention and care of the Trade Union levels, especially the GTU in the COVID-19 epidemic, many workers expressed their joy, confidence and gratitude. Ms. Tran Thi Hanh, a worker of Tokin Electronics (Vietnam) Co., Ltd. (Bien Hoa city), said that when she came to work, in addition to being provided with reasonable resting conditions and masks, the Trade Union officials regularly reminded her to wear masks and instructed to wash her hands. “I am very touched by the care, encouragement, and side by side with the employees. That is the motivation for me to increasingly believe in the Trade Union as well as feel secure when coming to work” - Ms. Hanh expressed.

At present, the COVID-19 epidemic has not been controlled and deemed to be at “high risk” of spreading; However, it is very practical and meaningful that the GTU officials are not afraid of difficulties and suffering, actively motivate and closely follow the employees to propagate and fight the epidemic well. These activities should continue to be strengthened and multiplied to ensure stable production activities as well as the lives and jobs of employees.

Mr. Le Duc Thuy, Chairman of the Labor Confederation of Trang Bom district, said that during the recent survey on the prevention of disease amongst workers in enterprises, It can be seen that the GTUs perform very well and effectively, the employees have also responded and seriously implemented. Many GTU officials have had new initiatives, helping employees and businesses improve awareness about epidemic prevention, while advising enterprises, they should have specific and long-term production strategies to maintain production, take good care of policies as well as employees' jobs.

Phong Lan