Growth cannot be exchanged for the health and lives of workers
After a decade of implementation, the 2015 Law on Occupational Safety and Health has affirmed the right of workers to work in safe and hygienic conditions; established the responsibility of employers; and at the same time set requirements for training, inspection, declaration, investigation of occupational accidents and implementation of occupational accident and disease insurance regimes.
However, the reality of production, business and labor market has changed rapidly. The development of technology, data, digital platforms, along with the increase of informal labor, flexible labor and new job models are posing new requirements in management.
This requires the law on occupational safety and health to continue to be reviewed, adjusted and improved to keep up with reality, better protect the health, life and legitimate rights of workers.
Labor accident data for 2025 released by the Ministry of Home Affairs shows that there were 7,004 labor accidents nationwide, killing 658 people and seriously injuring 1,779 people.
Compared to 2024, the total number of cases and the number of victims decreased, the number of deaths and the number of deaths also decreased. This is a positive signal, reflecting the efforts of all levels and sectors in inspection, examination, propaganda and raising awareness about labor safety.
However, behind that downward trend are warnings that cannot be underestimated. The number of seriously injured people in 2025 increased by 5.27% compared to the same period. In particular, in the area of workers working without labor contracts, the number of fatal accidents increased by 4.3%, the number of deaths increased by 4.9% and the number of seriously injured people increased by 2.78%, making the informal labor sector, labor without labor relations, becoming a worrying "low-lying area" of occupational safety and health policies.
From the drastic actions in the past, if we only look at the downward trend of the number of accidents, we are somewhat reassured. But if we look at the risk structure, we will see that the requirement to amend the law has become urgent.
Industries and fields that often record fatal accidents are still concentrated in construction, textiles - footwear, electricity production and business, and mineral exploitation. Serious forms of injury also mainly revolve around traffic accidents, high falls, electric shocks, machine crushing, clipping, and rolling. The issue to think about is that these causes and groups of risks are not new, but are still repeated, showing that labor safety is not only compliance, but also a test for development management capacity.
In addition, today's production space is not only located in factories, workshops, construction sites, industrial clusters, craft villages, production households, seasonal workers, freelancers... but has expanded to technical service infrastructure, logistics, e-commerce, digital platforms and multi-layered supply chains.
Taking workers as the center of labor safety policy
The request to amend the Law on Occupational Safety and Health is a step of institutional reform to realize the view of putting workers at the center, as the subject, goal and driving force of occupational safety policies.
Workers are not only protected from risks, but must be the subjects to participate in identifying risks, monitoring working conditions, promptly reflecting inadequacies and enjoying the fruits of a safer working environment.
In which, the amended Law needs to shift the approach from "accident handling" to "risk prevention", data governance, with a clear coordination mechanism between levels and sectors, and at the same time expand and cover the safety network to all workers.
On the other hand, the major "bottleneck" that needs to be removed is that labor safety and hygiene data is still scattered. Partly in enterprises, partly in labor, health, social insurance, inspection, industry and trade, construction, agriculture, industrial park management boards, inspection units, and training units.
When data is not interconnected, each agency only sees a piece of the picture. Therefore, the amended law needs to establish a legal basis for a common national data system on occupational safety and health.
This system must manage at least core information groups: occupational accidents, occupational diseases, machinery and equipment with strict requirements, inspection results, labor environment monitoring, safety training, occupational health checks, supervision of the implementation of inspection conclusions, inspections and post-incident remediation of enterprises.
This is not just about converting paper reports to electronic ones. The core thing is that the data can identify, warn and control risks, helping management agencies to see where incidents often occur, which industries are prone to violations, which devices are potentially dangerous, which businesses are slow to fix and which groups of workers lack training, knowledge and skills.
Another challenge is the area where workers do not have labor relations. This is a very broad group: freelancers, seasonal workers, production households, craft villages, agriculture, small-scale construction, family services, digital platform employment. They can be exposed to machinery, chemicals, dust, noise, and many other hazardous factors. But the training, statistics, insurance, supervision, and support mechanisms for this group are still very limited.
The amended law needs to have separate regulations to protect employees who do not have labor relations. This group cannot apply the same as businesses, but it cannot stand outside the policy. The State needs to issue minimum safety guidelines for each profession; grassroots authorities, professional associations, cooperatives and unions participate in propaganda and training; and at the same time open more mechanisms to support risk prevention and appropriate insurance participation.
Finally, taking workers as the goal and driving force of development also requires changing the way resources are used. Policies should not only focus on post-accident payments, but must increase investment in prevention. Occupational accident and disease insurance needs to become a tool to support improving working conditions, training high-risk groups, early detection of occupational diseases, risk assessment and transition to safer technologies. Prevention is always less costly than recovery, and no savings can justify trading off the health and lives of workers.
At the 14th Vietnam Trade Union Congress, term 2026-2031 (June 2026), General Secretary and President To Lam emphasized: There is no modern industry without a modern worker force. There is no high labor productivity if workers are not trained, cared for, protected and inspired to contribute. Sustainable development cannot be achieved if the lives of workers and laborers are still difficult, if the legitimate voice of workers is not fully heard.
From the requirements and directions of the General Secretary and President, it can be seen that the issue of caring for, protecting and listening to workers, labor safety and hygiene issues need to be placed in the right position in the national development strategy.
Vietnam is entering a new stage of development, with the aspiration for high growth, modern industry, digital economy and deep integration into the global value chain. In which, all development choices are only truly meaningful when aimed at protecting people and creating conditions for each worker to work in a safe and sustainable environment.
