Life of construction workers hangs by a thin thread

Workers at a construction site in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7 work without helmets or other protective gear. There was no fence and no warning sign as Hoang Lam Tinh was hit in the chest by the excavator and pushed to his death into a nearby drain.

The 48-year-old from the north-central province of Thanh Hoa was working on a construction site in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 when the accident happened last month. With weak regulations and enforcement, and even weaker punishment levied on investors and contractors, serious accidents are just waiting to happen at hundreds of construction sites in the city, placing the lives of hundreds of workers in the balance. There were eight accidents involving fatalities at construction sites in the city in the first nine days of this month. Many of the workers on construction sites are poor migrants from far off places working for a pittance without even the minimum safety equipment to provide a subsistence livelihood for their families. Projects galore As the nation’s commercial hub, thousands of construction sites function everyday in the city, from minor ones like residences to major infrastructural projects like the East-West Highway. The East-West Highway project, that runs through eight districts as it links districts 1 and 2, is one of the city’s major projects but few construction sites along the potential highway have fences around the operating machines. Many construction workers don’t wear protective clothing or safety helmets. It is common to see a worker in regular street clothes directing a crane driver to lower huge iron beams into the right spot. At many buildings under construction in District 7, workers on the edge of upper floors can fall at any time as there are no barriers. According to inspectors from the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, most accidents at construction sites are the result of such falls, as well as scaffolding collapses and electric shocks. Deputy chief inspector of the department, Nguyen Quoc Viet, said the “safety index at city construction sites has dropped to the alarming point.” The composition of the construction workforce changes constantly and officials cannot open working safety courses every time there’s a new worker, Viet said. He said most construction investors and contractors “are not aware of labor laws.” The price surge in construction materials from mid-2008 onwards has added to the reasons the contractors’ foremen do not equip workers with protective gear, maintain fences, or post warning signs, Viet said. Early this month, foreman Nguyen Huu Cong of the New Saigon residential complex in Nha Be District died after falling from the 21st to the 15th floor along an unfenced elevator pit. Labor regulations stipulate that there should be one official responsible of ensuring safety at a site of more than 300 workers. But in the construction industry with a high risk of accidents, that ratio is just too small, Viet said. Puny punishments Viet’s superior Huynh Tan Dung said inspecting a construction site requires officials from more than just one agency. “But such joint inspection has not been the norm so far,” Dung said. Current mechanisms allow individual labor inspectors to make uninformed checks. But the inspectors can only fine people working at the sites, not the project investor or contractor who hires the foreman. And the maximum fine is VND200,000 (US$11.47) for an error. When there’s an accident involving the investor or contractor’s responsibility, each will be fined a maximum of VND20 million ($1,147). In 2007, the city People’s Committee ordered the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Department of Construction to send their inspectors together to check major construction sites in the city. But Viet said the number of sites that the inspectors actually look at is nothing compared to the total number. He suggested construction inspectors of wards and communes work more at minor construction sites in their areas. Viet also blamed the police for creating more trouble in the process to find out why an accident happened. As no time limit has been imposed on the police to communicate their findings to the inspectors, they keep it to themselves for far too long. Thus, the inspectors end up sharing the findings three to six months after an accident, instead of 40 days as stipulated, Viet said. The police also show little support when the inspectors suggest bringing the case to court, he said. Source: Tuoi Tre