A section of the Railway of the Cát Linh-Hà Đông urban railway project. – Photo baodatviet.vn

HÀ NỘI – The Project Management Unit of Railway of the Cát Linh-Hà Đông urban railway project admitted that it violated regulations pertaining to labour and occupational safety standards during construction.

In a report sent to the Ministry of Transport on Tuesday, the management unit said it had required the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, China Railway Sixth Group, and the subcontractor, X4 Housing JSC, to explain violations that had been reported in local media.

According to X4 Housing JSC, the workers were divided into groups directed by one supervisor each. The company assigned jobs to supervisors, who had the responsibility of providing relevant documents of the employees, including their identity cards, occupational certificates and certificates of occupational safety and hygiene.

For jobs that require technical expertise, the subcontractor required employees to have occupational certificates and relevant work experience in order to carry out jobs on the construction site.

In January, there was a lot of extra work, such as cleaning up the construction site, unloading scaffolding and moving building materials and waste from the site. These tasks did not require employees to have skills and vocational certificates under the labour law, the subcontractor said.

It also said that two employees, who were found to be using manual labourers for skilled jobs, had been fired before the lunar New Year Festival. That meant the dismissals had been implemented before local media reports.

China Railway Sixth Group and X4 Housing JSC affirmed that they would strengthen control over human resources and labour safety going forward.

The Project Management Unit of Railway said that the Cát Linh-Hà Đông urban railway is an important project with complicated construction design, and was built in central districts with crowded traffic, posing potential safety risks for people.

It said the inspection of labourers and occupational safety is a priority. From mid-2015, many teams from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and Transport inspected the construction site, and all shortcomings had been improved.

In terms of the project’s progress, which was scheduled to be completed by the end of this December, the management unit refused to confirm whether it was on schedule, but said it would try its best to stay on track.

The Cát Linh-Hà Đông urban railway project broke ground in October 2011 with an initial investment estimate of US$552 million, $419 million of which came from Chinese development assistance loans.

Last June, the Government approved a proposal to borrow an additional $250.6 million from China to partly offset the additional funds needed for the completion of the project. The project timeline was extended with a goal of starting operations by the end of this year. –VNS