In their latest bid to win compensation, former RCA employees have decided to take their fight overseas and file a lawsuit against the company, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
Over 1,000 of the company's former employees claim that their employment with RCA led to their developing cancer. The Council of Labor Affairs and social groups plan to help the ex-employees in their fight, a local media report said.
Gu Yu-lin (
Once the official guarantee is given, an overseas lawsuit in the US will begin, the report said.
This case will be the first time that a governmental body has acted as a guarantor in a civil lawsuit.
In order to cope with this overseas case, the Judicial Reform Foundation has formed a volunteer legal counsel group of 34 people. More than 100 university students were also invited to interview the RCA victims and help write civil indictment papers, the report said.
The US-based electronics giant RCA invested in Taiwan in 1969 and set up production facilities in Taoyuan, Chunpei and Ilan.
Two years after the company came to Taiwan, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) accused RCA plants of illegally disposing toxic waste materials such as trichlroethylene and perchloroethylene into wells near the plant.
In February 1998, the EPA confirmed that the area where the Taoyuan plant was located had been designated a permanently polluted zone.
In 1997, numerous cases of cancer were discovered among previous employees of RCA. According to interviews conducted by the Taiwan Association of Victims of Occupational Accidents and Diseases, during the 23 years RCA operated in Taiwan, 1,375 people had suffered from cancer, of which 216 had died. In addition, several hundred employees were reported suffering from various kinds of non-malignant tumors.
Investigations into the case, which was first uncovered six years ago, said the extent of the pollution had spread as far as 2km from the plant.
The level of trichlroethylene in nearby drinking water still exceeds the standard set by the EPA 1,000 times.
According to surveys conducted by different organizations, including National Taiwan University, cancer rates near the plant have dramatically increased. Contaminated soil and underground pollution was suspected to be the main cause.
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