The recent 3-on-site story of Vidan!

Vidan Co., Ltd. (Hiệp Phước Industrial Park, Ho Chi Minh City), specializing in fertilizer production, has decided to organize production according to the 3T model from the beginning of July, before Ho Chi Minh City issued regulations over a month later due to the high risk of infection among workers living in boarding houses. Mr. Nguyễn Văn Phong, the company’s director, with his loud Quang Nam accent, said: “Organizing production according to 3T is not difficult at all. When I saw the epidemic spreading too strongly, I told my more than 120 workers that we must be safe to live and work because this pandemic will last a long time. Anyone who can follow Mr. Phong should arrange to stay in the factory, not go home anymore; the company will take care of all living expenses. However, in the end, only 25 workers followed the boss. The rest had family circumstances with young children, elderly parents…”. In the early days, when there was no social distancing order according to Directive 16 for the whole city, we organized many sports activities, marathons around the company, quizzes about Covid-19, about the company’s products… so the workers’ spirits were quite comfortable even though they were living far from home. However, after July 15, when some measures to tighten epidemic prevention were implemented, we had to cancel outdoor activities and gatherings in the factory to comply with epidemic prevention principles.

“Since then, the atmosphere in the factory has become dull and somber. Occasionally, there have been sighs of longing for home. Some workers, after work, hide in a corner of the room crying because they miss their children. Female workers cry, and male workers also cry. I understand that if we cannot soothe the workers’ spirits at this time, it is very easy to create a domino effect of sadness. I called on workers to set up Zalo groups just to talk humorously, joke with each other, even share information about the epidemic creeping into alleys, people dying from Covid-19 at home due to overloaded hospitals, information from both domestic and foreign sources… Unexpectedly, these things had quite a good effect. By early August, most workers’ mental states had returned to normal,” Mr. Phong recounted, adding that although they had implemented 3T and vaccinated, the regulations on testing for workers remained the same as before vaccination, causing the business to continue facing difficulties. With 25 workers operating under 3T, Vidan Company incurs an average cost of over 200 million VND each month. Of which, the testing cost alone is nearly 70 million VND.

“From October, the company will continue to maintain production according to the 3T model, and we also recommend that this model should be maintained to reduce the spread of the epidemic in the community; however, the regulations for 3T need to be more flexible. For example, if the business has already implemented 3T, then the testing interval should be extended, possibly once a month instead of every 7 days as it is now. Eliminate unnecessary checkpoints and health declarations because they are breeding grounds for the disease to spread again; issue QR codes for all company vehicles. During the days of implementing 3T, we were only granted a green lane for one 10-ton truck. Therefore, going to buy instant noodles, buying vegetables for workers also had to “drive” a 10-ton truck. Meanwhile, the company has 12 vehicles including pickups, small trucks, and cars…” – still with that loud Quang Nam accent, it feels like for this man, nothing is insurmountable.

“Excerpt from the Thanh Niên newspaper when writing about 3T at Vidan”