Enterprises need to pay attention to health check for employees

​According to the provisions of the Labor Code, employer must organize a periodical health check for employees at least once a year. For those who do heavy and hazardous jobs, they should be examined at least twice a year. However, over the past time, many enterprises in the province are still quite indifferent or deliberately ignoring the work of medical examination and treatment for employees.

Employees of Changshin Vietnam Co., Ltd check health at the company

Many employees do not have a medical check-up

In 2022, the province's interdisciplinary inspection teams inspected the implementation of occupational safety and health regulations at enterprises in the province. Through inspection, it was discovered that many enterprises did not organize medical check-up for employees. There were businesses that seeked to "dodge" or organized sketchy examinations to deal with authorities or organized examinations at small private clinics and establishments to reduce costs. In many factories, workers were not equipped with labor protection equipments to avoid dust and noise. Even businesses were not interested in monitoring the working environment. Therefore, toxic factors in the working process have greatly affected the long-term health of employees, especially occupational diseases like deafness, pneumonia...

Explaining the reason for not organizing periodic health check for employees, enterprises answered with many reasons to avoid responsibility. In particular, the main reason was the Covid-19 epidemic, so businesses could not gather employees for health check. Some enterprises stated the reason for having difficulties in production and business, had no orders. Some other businesses said that, although they did not organize periodic health check, every year they spend money on health check for workers according to the prescribed level...

For more than a year now, female worker Dang Ngoc Anh, working at a leather shoes manufacturing company at Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Park, has to go to the hospital every month to treat degenerative lumbar spine disease. Ms. Anh said that for more than 11 years as a worker and due to the nature of her job, she often had to sit, so she often had back pain. She was first subjectively bought massage oil, then her back pain progressed strongly, she went to doctors and discovered the disease. Since then, every month she had to deduct a salary to treat the disease and buy medicine.

According to Ms. Anh, the company where she was working organized periodic health check for employees. However, the examination was still sketchy and formal. “In particular, the company has a large number of employees, so the medical check-up for employees has not been invested by the enterprise. Therefore, many workers have diseases that are difficult to detect early for treatment. I hope the business will pay attention to and value the health of their employees so that they can ensure their health at work and contribute to the business" Ms. Anh confided.

And Mr. Tran Van Hinh, working in the field of furniture manufacturing at Long Binh ward (Bien Hoa City) said that his job often inhaled dust from sawdust of wood and smell of wood paint but rarely sent to medical check-up. Even though he knew that he was disadvantaged in terms of benefits if he quited his job, he had no income to take care of his life. Therefore, only when he knew that he was seriously ill, he went to doctors.

Need a punishment as a deterrent

In recent years, some businesses have well performed health check for employees. For example, it was at Advanced Multitech Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Nhon Trach district), the business coordinates with the Provincial Center for Disease Control to organize medical check-up for employees every year. Particularly for employees working at heavy and hazardous sections, they are entitled to medical examinations twice a year.

Ms. Do Thi Thuy Kieu, charges of occupational safety and health at the company said that if employees were well organized, they would limit occupational diseases and they could work with peace of mind. This was also a strict requirement of customers before signing new orders. "I think businesses need to choose reputable medical facilities to provide good service quality and ensure accurate examination results for employees," said Ms. Kieu.

Vietnam Precision Industry Joint Stock Company (Trang Bom district) annually contracts with Dong Nai General Hospital to organize medical check-up for employees. Mr. Le Van Cuong working at the company said that during the recent period of medical check-up, he had a general examination including: blood pressure measurement, respiratory function test, hearing, vision, blood test, ultrasound .... Compared to going to the hospitals to have to wait for a long time, his mentality is very comfortable to have medical check at the enterprise. In addition, for common diseases, he and many other workers consulted by doctors to take care for prevention and treatment.

In fact, where business owners have a sense of responsibility, there employees are cared for and taken care of for good health. On the contrary, if the business owners are "indifferent", employees are less interested. From the actual inspection of the provincial interdisciplinary inspection teams at enterprises, we found the inadequacies and limitations in the organization of production and the implementation of regulations on occupational safety and health examination for employees. Many employees have had occupational accidents or fainted at work because of overwork. Meanwhile, employees due to lack of understanding of the Labor Law should lose their legitimate rights.

According to union officials at the grassroots level, many businesses deliberately neglect to take care of their employees' health for the immediate benefit. Therefore, for enterprises that deliberately avoid the responsibility of health care for their employees, functional sectors need to have strict sanctions for timely deterrence. In addition, strengthen inspection of occupational safety and health to detect violations of labor laws, correct and urge enterprises to pay attention to the safety and health of workers.​​​