The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a previous ruling and ordered Radio Corp of America (RCA) and its affiliates to pay NT$564.45 million (US$18.3 million at the current exchange rate) to 262 of its former Taiwanese employees and affected family members.
It referred another group of 246 plaintiffs to the Taiwan High Court for a retrial.
In earlier rulings on the case, the US company was found liable for the cancer and illnesses its employees contracted while handling organic solvents, which were later found to be carcinogenic, at the RCA factory in then-Taoyuan county.
Photo: CNA
Investigators also found that toxic waste was dumped around the factory, contaminating soil and underground water.
More than 200 employees have since died.
After the ruling, the RCA Self-Help Association, which is made up of former RCA employees and deceased workers’ family members, vowed to keep fighting, saying that they would not compromise on their demands.
Association leaders, who were joined by supporters and lawyers from the Legal Aid Foundation, said that the court-ordered figure did not meet their expectations, and they considered the retrial for 246 of the plaintiffs a setback.
“We do not know why the judges rejected compensation for the 246 plaintiffs, but we will continue the legal battle and will never compromise in our fight for justice,” RCA Self-Help Association president Liu Ho-yun (劉荷雲) said.
“We did not lose, and in a way, we did win, but the result was far from what we expected,” she said.
Liu said that the association has filed another lawsuit with the Taipei District Court on behalf of another 1,142 former employees and family members who are seeking compensation of NT$7.3 billion.
According to information from the association, more than 1,300 former RCA employees have been diagnosed with cancer, while 221 of them have died from cancer and related illnesses.
RCA opened its Taoyuan factory in 1970, under its subsidiary RCA Taiwan Ltd. The factory produced electronic appliances and parts for television sets.
It used more than 30 types of organic solvents, including trichloroethylene and tetracholorethene, which are classified as Group 2A carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
RCA ran several other plants in Taiwan from 1970 to 1992.
The company was in 1986 taken over by General Electric Co (GE), which later sold it to Thomson Consumer Electronics, the US subsidiary of France-based Thomson Multimedia, now called Technicolor SA.
The association filed the lawsuit in 2004, and it has since become one of the nation’s longest-running legal battles between a corporation and its employees.
Environmental groups and labor activists have described the contamination at the RCA factory as the worst industrial disaster in Taiwan’s history.
Yesterday’s decision came after a ruling by the Taiwan High Court in October last year, which ordered RCA, GE, Technicolor and Thomson to pay NT$718.4 million in compensation to the affected employees and their families.
In their ruling yesterday, judges reiterated that medical experts had testified that the incidence of cancer among former employees was up to 30 times higher than in the general population.
Judges said that the defendants had deliberately transferred a large portion of their assets out of Taiwan to reduce their financial liability when GE sold RCA to Thomson Consumer Electronics in 1988.
After the sale, it was found that executives transferred US$150 million into overseas bank accounts.
After the contamination was reported at the Taoyuan site in 1991, the company sold the building and land for about NT$1.9 billion the following year.
“RCA and its affiliated companies did not properly protect the safety and health of their workers. They did not inform them about the danger and toxic nature of the chemical substances used, and even tried to cover up and conceal evidence,” the ruling statement said. “Investigations found that the companies were deliberately deceitful ... and refused to provide information to the Environmental Protection Administration, which hindered the victims’ compensation claims.”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the
Speeding and badly maintained roads were the main causes of a school bus accident on a rainy day in Taipei last year that severely injured two people and left 22 with minor injuries, the Taiwan Transportation and Safety Board said. On March 11 last year, a Kang Chiao International School bus overturned inside the Wenshan Tunnel (文山隧道) on the northbound lane of the Xinyi Expressway. The tour bus, owned by Long Lai Co, exceeded the speed limit after entering the tunnel, the board’s investigation found. Sensing that the rear of the vehicle was swaying, the driver attempted to use the service and exhaust
“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