Enterprises in southern industrial zones take fight to COVID-19 pandemic

Workers are asked to followed 5K regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic

The company is better prepared to cope with the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to last year, revealed Nguyen Thi My Hoa, head of human resources and admin executive of Organ Needle Co., Ltd. However, the most worrying thing is to ensure the company’s production progress meets the deadlines.

“At present, we’ve already had a firm number of orders for the next three consecutive months. We have to maintain the intensity of work as usual to complete orders on time. If there is any infected worker in our factory, the manufacturing operation would probably be suspended, or worse still, we would have to shut down our factory altogether,” Hoa said.

Along with preventive measures and cautions noticed by the zone, employees of Organ Needle are asked to follow the ministry’s 5K message. Plus, before entering the building, all employees have their body temperature checked, and a second time later in the day. In addition, workers who are absent for at least three days must make a medical declaration before returning.

The company is strictly following preventive measures published by the Ministry of Health, as well as the instructions of the management board of Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing and Industrial Zone Authority (Hepza) to assure safe and healthy working conditions amongst workers.

Ho Chi Minh City has 17 export processing zones (EPZs) and industrial zones (IZs), including 1,500 enterprises, nearly 280,000 employees, and nearly 3,000 foreign workers. Hepza is coordinating with the Ho Chi Minh City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the health centres of districts and provinces to organise a large-scale screening of nearly 17,000 workers inside factories and workers' accommodations.

Last week, these agencies collected testing samples for 300 workers at Nidec Tosok Corporation. At the same time, more than 1,400 workers of workers’ accommodation at Tan Thuan EPZ were also tested. All samples were negative.

In addition, nearly 800 workers living in worker's accommodation at Linh Trung 2, Thu Duc City have been tested. These workers are working for companies like Saigon Precision Co., Ltd. and Freetrend Industrial A Co., Ltd. Also, random testing has been conducted at Vietnam Paiho Ltd. at Tan Tao industrial park (IP) and Shang One JSC at Le Minh Xuan IP.

Located at Amata City Bien Hoa IP, Lee Jinhyo, general director of DY (Daeyeol) Boiler Vina Co., Ltd. told VIR that the company is having difficulties in importing raw materials. Yet, it has not yet severely affected manufacturing operations since the company flexibly purchased domestic raw materials to promptly meet the schedule of the production plan.

Nevertheless, the company is now faced with financial difficulties resulting from its affected production plans. “Still, the company is sparing no effort in maintaining manufacturing to bring stable income for employees,” Jinhyo added.

Dong Nai Industrial Zones Authority, together with local authorities, has also supported enterprises with respect to labour resources. In particular, the authorities facilitate and actively guide foreign workers so that they can quickly complete the procedures to work at companies in accordance with regulations. Furthermore, the authorities regularly track changes to timely add labour resources for enterprises, minimising the impact of labour shortage.

Daeyeol has disinfected its factories as well as rearranged tables and chairs to adopt social distancing. Apart from free mask distribution, complimentary hand sanitisers, and hand soap are also placed in convenient areas.

Meanwhile, Amata City Bien Hoa JSC, operating Amata City Bien Hoa IP, regularly updates its people on the situation of the pandemic nationwide. The company issues urgent pandemic preventive notices, and constantly works on a hotline to support people in the park with respect to coronavirus issues. It also asks relevant agencies to aid if there are F1 or F2 cases in the park.