More than 82% of businesses have not reported labor accidents

Only 17.52% of businesses submit work accident reports

Discussing in groups about the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health recently, National Assembly Delegate Phan Thi Thuy Linh (Da Nang Delegation) said that nationwide, only about 17.52% of businesses send reports on the situation of OAs; the number of investigation records sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs is only about 10.73% of the number of fatal accidents.

These figures show that the data source for management and research is still limited.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs' announcement on the workplace accident situation, in the first 6 months of 2026, the whole country recorded 3,415 workplace accidents, causing 3,476 victims and 391 deaths. Compared to the same period in 2025, the number of cases increased by 32.93%, and the number of deaths increased by 22.57%.

Through the records of fatal workplace accident investigations received, areas such as mineral exploitation, construction materials production, construction and textiles still recorded serious accidents.

Connecting data to avoid risks

Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Vu Anh Duc - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Director of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Science, said that the rate of enterprises submitting reports on the situation of OAs is still low, directly affecting the quality of management and the effectiveness of OAs prevention.

This, according to Mr. Vu Anh Duc, has caused certain difficulties. That is, it is difficult to fully assess the actual situation of OAs. When many businesses have not reported, the recorded data may not fully reflect the actual situation. "It will be difficult to accurately identify industries, types of jobs or groups of workers at high risk, and also difficult to compare between localities and between years" - he assessed.

Next, it is difficult to analyze the causes to choose appropriate preventive measures. Statistics on the number of accidents and deaths will give the final results. To prevent accidents from recurring, it is necessary to know what conditions the incident occurs in, whether it is related to machinery, equipment, working processes, training or organization and safety monitoring. If the investigation file lacks information, determining the root cause will be difficult to be accurate, thereby affecting the effectiveness of intervention measures.

Finally, according to Mr. Vu Anh Duc, businesses submitting low OAs reports will find it difficult to correctly identify the focus of investment for prevention work. Research, inspection, examination, training and technical support activities need to focus on high-risk areas. If input data is not complete, the selection of priority areas and resource allocation may not be close to reality.

He gave an example of data comparison between sources. For example, in the first 6 months of 2026, according to a summary of 18/34 localities, medical examination and treatment facilities recorded 7,786 people with labor accidents coming for examination, while the national labor accident reporting system recorded 3,476 people with accidents in the same period.

These two sources have different collection scopes, so the entire difference cannot be considered unreported cases. However, this is the basis for studying the connection and comparison of data between the internal affairs sector, the health sector and related information sources.

To limit the situation of businesses not sending reports on the workplace accident situation, the Director of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Sciences believes that it is necessary to strictly implement the reporting responsibility of businesses, and at the same time to be more unified on forms, classification criteria and data update procedures.

Information sharing and comparison between agencies also needs to be carried out in accordance with regulations on personal data protection.

The most important thing is that the data must be sufficiently reliable to help us understand where accidents occur, why they occur, and what needs to be done to prevent similar incidents," Mr. Vu Anh Duc emphasized.

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