TKV Trade Union takes care of each shift meal for miners

Focus on the quality of each meal

The specific characteristics of the Coal - Mineral industry, especially underground mining, require workers to work at high intensity. Therefore, the TKV Trade Union focuses on coordinating with professional departments to ensure nutrition, health care, and labor recovery.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh - Vice Chairwoman of TKV Trade Union, this work is deployed relatively comprehensively, suitable to the production characteristics of each unit.

Currently, at 14 underground mine units in TKV, there are a total of 49,445 workers, of which 43,325 work in shifts, 33,535 workers in underground mines. On average, each month, units organize over 708,000 quantitative meals, with a total budget of about 46.5 billion VND/month.

The units mainly organize self-cooked kitchens, serving centrally at the dining hall. The current value of a meal is 65,000 VND/meal (only food wages, excluding labor costs and other expenses).

Meals are organized into 2 main and side meals. The main meal is in the form of self-service meals with 12-18 dishes, worth from 40,000 VND to 55,000 VND; side meals from 10,000 VND to 25,000 VND, including banh mi gio, milk, boxed rice, sticky rice, pho, vermicelli, porridge. After leaving the oven, workers are also served a cup of cooling sweet soup, worth from 2,000 VND to 3,000 VND.

The arrangement of meal times is calculated to suit the characteristics of 3-shift production. 9/14 units arranged shift 1 to eat at the beginning of the shift, shift 2 and shift 3 to eat at the end of the shift, creating convenience for workers during the working process.

At open-pit coal mining, screening, processing and consumption units, there are 7 units hiring shift meal services for 14,441 workers, of which 11,195 people work in shifts. Each month, the units serve an average of 299,156 meals, with a total cost of about 9.5 billion VND.

The value of each meal is from 26,000 - 30,000 VND, excluding labor costs and other costs. At open-pit mines, lunch boxes are served directly to workers.

Strengthen supervision, listen to workers

Promoting the role of representative, TKV Trade Union and grassroots trade unions participate in contributing opinions on menus, quantities, methods, and service hours; and at the same time include the content of quantitative meals and shift meals in collective labor agreements and periodic dialogues.

The Trade Union Supervision Team, the People's Inspection Board, the Women's Affairs Committee and related departments supervise the quality of meals, food safety, quantification, service conditions and the implementation of material allowance regimes, ensuring the right beneficiaries and levels of benefits.

Channels for receiving opinions such as dialogue, direct exchange, suggestion boxes, surveys by ballot or online are also maintained.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh, in the coming time, the TKV Trade Union will continue to coordinate with professional departments to improve policies on meals, training and health care for workers; strengthen negotiations, and include clauses that are more beneficial than the provisions of law in the Collective Labor Agreement. At the same time, periodically review and propose adjustments to the value of meals in accordance with market price fluctuations.

TKV Trade Union sets a goal to strive for 100% of units/businesses to include the content of lunch meal value in collective negotiations; 100% of kitchens/food suppliers ensure food safety and hygiene standards, preventing food poisoning; 100% of units organize surveys and periodically collect employee opinions on satisfaction levels; 100% of reasonable and legitimate opinions are received and resolved promptly and strive for 100% of employees to be satisfied with safe and nutritious lunch meals.

Along with upgrading the dining hall and improving rest space, the TKV Trade Union continues to focus on controlling the origin of food, processing processes, improving the quality of meals, contributing to health care, helping workers feel secure and attached to the coal industry.

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