Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流) illegally asked one of its drivers to deliver chemicals, but refused to take responsibility after the driver was injured by the alkaline liquid, Logistical Labor Rights Self-help Association chairman Tseng Yu-cheng (曾堉誠) said yesterday.
The company on Nov. 3 last year asked an employee surnamed Tai (戴) to deliver 10 barrels of silane — a flammable alkaline substance — from Pingtung County’s Chaojhou Township (潮州) to Sinyuan Township (新園) without telling him what the cargo would be, Tseng said at a news conference on behalf of Tai, adding that the company did not even have a license to deliver the dangerous substance.
Later, when Tai was moving one of the barrels, chemicals spilled out, injuring his face and other parts of his body, Tseng said, adding that Tai has been diagnosed with the skin disease rosacea.
When Tai sought occupational injury compensation from the Ministry of Labor, the ministry rejected his application because it chose to believe a “false” document presented by the company, Tseng said.
In a transcript of a conversation between the company and two customers that Tseng showed at the news conference, the cargo was described as fodder for pigs, rather than a dangerous substance.
However, the accounts of the two recipients, surnamed Chien (簡) and Sung (宋), were false, as they had conspired with the company, Tseng said.
Tai said he had worked at the company for about 14 years until he resigned in September this year, lamenting the company’s indifference to his grievance.
“All I want is the truth,” Tai said, adding that the ministry should have probed deeper into the case before reaching a conclusion.
Tai presented a response by the ministry’s Bureau of Labor Insurance dated Oct. 20.
After consulting dermatologists, the bureau concluded that Tai’s skin condition had emerged three years ago and therefore could not have been caused by the spill, the letter said.
Tai could file an administrative appeal within 30 days if he is not satisfied with the bureau’s decision, it added.
Tseng and Tai, who said the bureau had made a rash judgement, yesterday submitted a petition to the Executive Yuan urging it to launch a new investigation into the case.
Tai in September pressed charges against the company for alleged document forgery at the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office, Tseng said, adding that they would seek help from the Legal Aid Foundation to file an administrative appeal against the bureau.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS