What Is Diphtheria? Must Companies Organize Diphtheria Testing for Employees?

1. What is diphtheria? Must companies organize diphtheria testing for employees?
1.1. What is diphtheria?
Diphtheria (in English: Diphtheria) is a dangerous infectious disease caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. It is an acute infectious disease that forms thick, tenacious, ivory-white pseudomembranes, firmly adherent and rapidly spreading to cover the entire pharynx, nose, tonsils, and larynx. The disease may appear on the skin and other mucous membranes such as the eye conjunctiva or genitalia, and has strong transmissibility, quickly developing into epidemics.

1.2. Must companies organize diphtheria testing for employees?

Under clause 1 Article 21 of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health 2015, annually employers must organize health check-ups at least once for employees; for employees engaged in heavy, hazardous, or dangerous occupations or jobs, or especially heavy, hazardous, or dangerous ones, employees with disabilities, juvenile employees, and elderly employees, health check-ups must be organized at least once every 6 months.

Under the above regulations, annually companies must organize health check-ups at least once for employees, and at least twice a year for employees engaged in heavy and hazardous work. Therefore, there is no regulation on organizing diphtheria testing for employees, so companies are not required to organize testing for this disease. However, given that diphtheria is currently being detected and shows signs of spreading, companies may organize diphtheria testing to ensure the health safety of employees.

2. Responsibilities of employers in ensuring occupational safety and health at the workplace

Under Article 16 of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health 2015, in ensuring occupational safety and health at the workplace, employers have the following responsibilities:

– Ensure that the workplace meets requirements on space, ventilation, dust, fumes, toxic gases, radiation, electromagnetic fields, heat, humidity, noise, vibration, and other dangerous and harmful factors as prescribed in relevant technical regulations, and periodically inspect and measure these factors; ensure sufficient bathrooms and toilets at the workplace as prescribed by the Minister of Health.

– Ensure that machinery, equipment, supplies, and substances are used, operated, maintained, and preserved at the workplace in accordance with technical regulations on occupational safety and health, or meet published and applied technical standards on occupational safety and health, and in accordance with internal regulations and procedures for ensuring occupational safety and health at the workplace.

– Fully provide employees with personal protective equipment when performing work with dangerous or harmful factors; equip the workplace with occupational safety and health devices.

– Annually or when necessary, organize inspections and assessments of dangerous and harmful factors at the workplace to implement technological and technical measures to eliminate or minimize dangerous and harmful factors at the workplace, improve working conditions, and care for employees’ health.

– Periodically inspect and maintain machinery, equipment, supplies, substances, factories, and warehouses.

– Post warning signs and instruction boards in Vietnamese and in a language common to employees on occupational safety and health for machinery, equipment, supplies, and substances subject to strict occupational safety and health requirements at the workplace, storage, preservation, and use locations, placed in easily readable and visible positions.

– Propagate, disseminate, or train employees on regulations, internal rules, and procedures on occupational safety and health, and measures for preventing and controlling dangerous and harmful factors at the workplace related to assigned work and tasks.

– Develop and issue plans for incident handling and emergency response at the workplace; organize incident handling, emergency response, and response forces, and promptly report to responsible persons upon detecting risks or when occupational accidents or technical incidents causing occupational unsafety or unhygiene occur at the workplace beyond the employer’s control.

Legal Perspective: Employers’ Obligation to Organize Health Check-ups for Employees

From a labor law perspective, the essential question is: must enterprises organize health check-ups and testing for employees? Under clause 1 Article 21 of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health 2015, annually employers must organize health check-ups at least once for employees; for employees engaged in heavy, hazardous, or dangerous occupations or jobs, or especially heavy, hazardous, or dangerous ones, employees with disabilities, juvenile employees, and elderly employees, health check-ups must be organized at least once every 6 months. In addition, employees must undergo occupational disease examinations as prescribed.

Regarding diphtheria — a group B infectious disease — when there is an epidemic, enterprises are responsible for coordinating with health authorities to implement epidemic prevention and control measures at the workplace under the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007. Enterprises have no general legal obligation to organize periodic diphtheria testing for all employees when there is no epidemic, but must fulfill the periodic health check-up obligations above and implement epidemic prevention measures when required by competent authorities.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Must enterprises organize periodic health check-ups for employees? Yes — at least once a year; at least once every 6 months for heavy, hazardous, or dangerous work (Article 21 of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health 2015).
Are health check-up costs deductible expenses? Yes, if they serve production and business activities and are supported by full invoices and documents.