Masan High-Tech Materials: Safe work environment – A driver for sustainability

According to statistics in 2021 from Thai Nguyen Occupational Safety and Health Council, there were 102 work-related accidents resulting in 104 people suffering from occupational accidents, lower 36 cases and 35 injured people compared to 2020, of which 15 fatal occupational accidents and 16 deaths. In general, the enterprises are aware of complying with legal regulations on occupational safety, maintaining quite well the conditions of occupational safety, hygiene and fire prevention and fighting. The employers have paid more attention and focused on the communication of occupational safety and health (OSH) and fire prevention and fighting at workplace. The enterprises organized a lot of their occupational safety and health contests and workshops to learn about the laws on labor. However, the implementation of occupational safety and health at the enterprises has been done inconsistently and ineffectively. Some enterprises still perform in a perfunctory and reactive manner, particularly small and medium enterprises still do not care for the occupational safety and health. There are still a lot of enterprises making every effort to well implement the OSH, contributing to boosting the production, namely Nui Phao Mining Company Limited, a subsidiary of Masan High-Tech Materials.

Being recognized as one of the outstanding enterprises in the OSH implementation across the province, Nui Phao Mining Company has focused on the occupational safety and health for all employees within the Company for years. With a high workforce and the nature of mining industry, processing minerals with high risks, Nui Phao Mining always focus and top prioritize the occupational health and health with the motto “Everyone working at Masan High-Tech Materials returns home safe and healthy every day”.

With the principle “safety first and only work when it is safe”, The company has developed and issued the policies, standards, rules, regulations, procedures, rules and guidance, instructions on occupational safety and health (OSH). All employees are trained, communicated and discussed before and during working. The hazards, hazardous tasks are clearly specified in the risk assessment and controls, corrective actions are specifically provided to implement. The company’s Health center are well equipped with advanced tools, devices and machines that are also regularly inspected and maintained for availability for first-aid and emergency if any accident may happen.

Based on the guidelines provided in Article 76 of the Law on occupational safety and health, and the actual situation, the Company has developed an occupational safety and health Plan. The Plan is implemented by relevant departments under the supervision of Health and Safety department. Currently, the Company is using 87 devices and equipment with strict requirements on OSH. All of them are inspected and certificated by specialized and competent organizations. The declaration and use of them is complied with the regulations. In addition, 40 radiological equipment is used, of which 37 radiation sources and 3 XRF equipment. All of them are declared and licensed to use by the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety.

The Company has issued clear and detailed regulations on the management and provision of personal protective equipment for employees; proper implementation of providing personal protective equipment for employees. In 2021, the Company conducted a survey on the quality of the personal protective equipment with majority of positive feedback.

Every year, the Company develops an OSH training plan for all employees in accordance with the regulations. In 2022, to adapt with the “new normal” after the Covid-19 pandemic, the Company signed a training contract with competent and authorized units to implement the training plan for all employees. At the end of April and early May, some classes for groups 1, 2 and 5 were held. In addition, the Company also rolls out and maintains internal training programs on OSH with different topics and contents related to the safety of the company to provide information and instruction for employees in a practical and effective manner. OHS training documents are recorded and updated regularly.  In parallel to the training courses for employees, the Company has developed more channels of information, communication and education on OSH for employees in an effective and timely manner.  

Thanks to well implementation of the measures above, there has been no case of occupational disease recorded at MHT since 2018; In 2021, only 3 minor incidents occurred; there is one incident without any fatality since the beginning of 2022.

The occupational environment monitoring is conducted regularly by the company and National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health to timely take measures to improve the work environment and control harmful factors such as: Plant shutdown twice per year; assessment and installation of barricades, guards for moving parts, high risk locations of pinpoint, cutting, etc.; installation and maintenance of the safety components of the equipment; inspection and maintenance of the fixed toxic gas detectors in some high risk locations of toxic gas such as: HCN, H2S gas detector, etc.

During the production process, all wastewater of the Company is collected and treated to meet the discharge limits under the discharge permit before discharging into environment. The monitoring is conducted online and automatically at the discharge points as required. Currently, the Company has 03 online, automatic wastewater monitoring stations and its data is directly transmitted to the data receiving system of the Thai Nguyen Department of Natural Resources and Environment for their monitoring and control. Besides, the Company also takes daily samples from the wastewater treatment facilities and discharge points to analyze at the SGS Vietnam’s site laboratory to serve internal control. The monitoring results showed that the quality of wastewater at the discharge points DP2 and DP3 is within the allowable limit under the discharge permit.

“We have two main approaches in the OSH, namely top-down and bottom-up. The top-down approach is to set out the standards and systems for the employees to perform their tasks in a proper way and ensure compliance when doing their daily work. Thereby, we inspect and supervise each other at the business. For the bottom-up approach, we listen to our employees, attempt to determine every opportunity to improve the OSH for both individual and the whole company. As a result, the issues are always improved and addressed timely to ensure that a safe work environment is provided for our employees.” said Ashley McAleese, General Manager of Nui Phao Mining Company Limited.

Behind each employee is a family, the occupational safety and health, therefore, is always the top priority at Nui Phao Mining Company Limited to provide a safe work environment for all employees as well as help them engage and contribute to the growth of the company.