The family of a 29-year old man who died suddenly at home after regularly working overtime at Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday accused the government of failing to recognize the case as occupational death.
Accompanied by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) and labor activists, the family told a press conference that their son, Hsu Shao-pin (徐紹斌), started working at Nanya in 2006 as an engineer and frequently worked overtime — as much as 139 hours a month. Before his death, Hsu had been putting in about 80 hours of overtime each month for half a year. On Jan. 11, his parents found him dead in front of his computer at home.
Hsu’s parents filed for compensation due to occupational injury and death with the Council of Labor Affairs’ (CLA) Bureau of Labor Insurance, claiming their son had died of exhaustion because he did not have any previous illnesses and was in the prime of his life.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The family maintain that working long hours in a high-stress environment and suddenly dying from heart attack or stroke are classic signs of death from overwork.
Although a court forensics analysis found that Hsu died of cardiogenic shock, it said his death was unrelated to his occupation.
Huang accused the CLA of turning a blind eye to hazardous work environments and the near impossibility of getting fair compensation for death from overwork under the current system.
In addition, to work-related health hazards, Huang also said that businesses can easily get away with demanding overtime from workers without giving additional pay.
“Businesses that say compensation is determined by job responsibilities rather than work hours can easily get away with saving money on employee overtime,” Huang said.
She said government officials who allow this to happen are siding with businesses and called the CLA the “Council of Employer Affairs.”
In response, Tsai Su-ying (蔡素櫻), assistant manager at the bureau, said that in this particular case, doctors were divided on whether the death was a result of overwork. While some were of the opinion that overwork did not affect Hsu’s health, the CLA will hand the case over to the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health for a full investigation as soon as possible, Tsai said.
The council also said that businesses are not allowed to compensate according to job responsibility rather than work hours without first obtaining approval from the CLA and having negotiated working hours with the employee. Violators can be punished with fines of up to NT$60,000, the CLA said.
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