The coffee chain 85°C must pay an employee NT$74,000 in damages after she developed constrictive tenosynovitis and tendinitis due to long hours of work, the Taichung District Court ruled on Thursday.
The plaintiff, surnamed Wang (王), started working at the company’s centralized factory in Greater Taichung’s Nantun District (南屯) in 2005. Tasked with packaging, Wang said she had to maintain a fixed posture for three to eight hours per day, during which she had to cut 100 to 250 frozen cakes.
In April 2010, Wang visited a doctor because of chronic hand pain. She was diagnosed with constrictive tenosynovitis, commonly known as trigger finger syndrome, in her right thumb and also tendinitis.
Constrictive tenosynovitis is a condition where the superficial and deep flexor tendon of the finger becomes inflamed and the tendon experiences a nodular enlargement, either making the finger painful to move or sometimes locking it in place. The condition usually occurs in the index or ring finger, but occasionally in the thumbs as well.
After quitting her job in May 2010, Wang obtained medical proof from the China University University Hospital that her injuries were occupational, winning her NT$117,000 in compensation from the Labor Insurance Bureau. She also filed suit against 85°C, seeking NT$333,000 in compensation.
Though 85°C denied that Wang’s injuries resulted from her work, the judge in the ruling said the doctor’s diagnosis confirmed that her condition had come from overly repetitive actions of grabbing and holding things.
However, as the company had not violated labor regulations nor asked Wang to work beyond normal hours, there was no basis for her demand for psychologically related compensation, the ruling said.
Saying that Wang had lost income of more than 200 workdays due to her injuries, the court ruled that the firm must pay her NT$74,000 in damages.
Chung Ching-ju (鐘靜如), the company’s public relations and sales director, said it would consult with its lawyers on how to react after it received the ruling in writing.
However, Chung said the company had centralized its factories prior to 2005 and cakes were all cut by machines. Unless certain occasions required production that exceeded the machines’ capacity, it would not need to have its staff slicing cakes, she said.
Wang was also a deputy section chief, Chung said, which meant she was not slicing cakes everyday because she would have had management duties aside from her routine work.
It was impossible to slice that many cakes a day, Chung added.
According to regulations, medical staff must first visit the working environment prior to awarding the patient proof of injury, Chung said the company doubted the veracity of the medical proof as the doctor who signed the certificate had not visited the factory.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS