A former employee of a 50 Lan (50嵐) tea shop in Taichung is to receive a total of NT$340,000 in compensation after receiving first to third-degree burns after she dropped a kettle of boiling water due to being frightened by a cockroach.
According to a ruling yesterday, the employee, surnamed Lin (林), began working at the store in April 2013, about two months prior to the incident.
On June 1, Lin was taking a kettle of boiling water from the kitchen to the working area when she was spooked by a cockroach, adding that Lin let dropped the kettle and the boiling water spilled onto her lower limbs.
Lin was hospitalized at Taichung Veterans’ General Hospital for 30 days before returning home, the ruling said, adding that Lin sustained first and second-degree burns to her lower legs and third-degree burns to her feet.
While the store initially paid NT$46,000 in damages, Lin sued the store for compensation due to vocational hazards as well as violations of her rights, according to the notice.
The store, previously given a clean bill of health by sanitation inspectors and sterilized in May, was unable to prevent the presence of cockroaches, the ruling read, adding that despite written warnings, the store had not provided adequate safety measures nor actively taught or required its employees to follow safety instructions.
Compensation for the vocational hazards was set at NT$180,000, while violation of Lin’s rights amounted to NT$160,000, the ruling said, adding that the owner still owed Lin NT$290,000 after the initial payment of NT$46,000.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
RSS