Mon, Jun 25, 2018 page3

• FEATURE:Dead worker’s family seek justice in courts

  NEGLIGENCE? Workers who survived two deadly blazes and families of those who died were hurried out of Taiwan before being fully informed of their rights, activists claim

  • By Shih Hsiu-chuan / CNA, with staff writer
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Most of the migrant workers who were injured in two recent fires returned home after accepting a settlement offered by their employers, as well as family members of those who were killed, but the family of one Vietnamese victim is seeking justice through the courts.

  Relatives of Nguyen Van Trai, 20, who was one of six Vietnamese working for Sican Co, a window-film manufacturer in Taoyuan’s Pingjhen District (平鎮), who died on Dec. 14 last year when a blaze engulfed their dormitory on the upper level of the factory’s warehouse, decided to sue Sican’s owner and another company official.

  The dormitory was made of sheet iron — making it an illegal construction and a potential fire hazard.

  “We are hoping that prosecutors would file charges against the employer and the court can order disclosure of several documents in the possession of authorities,” said attorney Chang Yu-yin (張譽尹), who is assisting the family.

  The family has sued Sican owner Chen Hung-ju (陳宏如) and head of the Pingzhen unit, Hsieh Chao-yi (謝朝怡), for negligent manslaughter, claiming their disregard for fire safety caused Nguyen’s death.

  Chang has asked the prosecutors look into several documents that have been withheld by authorities believed to determine whether the dormitory complied with building and fire safety codes.

  Despite a lack of rules that ban the use of sheet-iron buildings as dormitories, sheet iron is not a fire-retardant material that can withstand fires for a specific length of time as required by building and fire codes for residential units, he said.

  The storage of flammable and combustible materials in the warehouse and the dormitory being divided into compartments with only one exit were also obvious violations of dormitory safety rules, Chang added.

  “There was only one entrance leading to the dormitory, where small spaces were partitioned by wood and there was no other way to escape. Right outside the entrance was the kitchen,” Nguyen Van Trai’s brother, Nguyen Van Chac, reportedly told local Chinese-language media.

  What he wanted more than anything else was to tell judges the condition his younger brother had been forced to live in, to see the employer held responsible and to bring justice to the deceased, Nguyen Van Chac said.

  After his brother’s death, Nguyen Van Chac, who was also working in a factory in Taiwan, returned home, mainly because their parents were very worried about him.

  Nguyen Van Chac’s own dormitory was not relocated outside the factory complex where he worked until last month, said Nguyen Van Hung (阮文雄), the Vietnamese-Australian Catholic priest who founded the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office in then-Taoyuan County in 2004.

  He is among a group of nongovernmental organization (NGOs) activists who tried to contact the five Vietnamese who were injured in the blaze, as well as the families of the dead, hoping to explain to them benefits for occupational injuries and deaths they could claim, since they were not familiar with Taiwan’s laws and language.

  However, they were unsuccessful, until Nguyen Van Chac contacted the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office seeking help.

  The victims’ employment brokers, Sican and officials with the Vietnamese representative office in Taipei did not allow the victims to talk to the NGOs, Nguyen Van Hung said.

  When Nguyen Van Trai’s family decided to handle compensation and legal issues themselves instead of having the employment broker do it, the broker said they “would not get any compensation,” the priest said. “The family told me that seemed to them like a threat.”

  Liu Nien-yun (劉念雲) of the Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries said local labor officials, in response to requests by NGOs, agreed to meet with the victims’ families to inform them of their legal rights.

  “However, we found out that they were sent home the morning the meeting was scheduled to take place,” Liu said. “It was just on the third day after their arrival.”

  A situation happened after the April 28 fire at Chin-Poon Industrial Co in Pingzhen District that claimed the lives of six firefighters and two Thai migrant workers.

  Hsu Wei-tung (許惟棟) of Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan, said he had learned that one of the Thais, whose body was found in the toilet, had made a telephone call to his daughter back home after the fire broke out.

  “This suggested that the victim did not die because he was in a drunken sleep, as has been reported,” Hsu said.

  “It could be that he was trying to escape from the toilet window, but could not make it. So he called his daughter. He knew the window was the only possible escape,” Hsu said.

  The families of the Thai victims also accepted the employer’s settlement offer on the third day after their arrival in Taiwan and were then sent home, Hsu said.

  Almost all the 300 migrant workers from Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines who had been living in the dormitory had their contracts terminated by Chin-Poon and were sent home with a severance pay, Hsu said.

  Hsu said he doubted the migrants were even given a chance to consider whether to stay to seek new employers, a legal right they are entitled to in the case of involuntary layoffs.

  In the wake of the two fires, the Ministry of Labor has begun mulling over whether to stipulate a minimum safe distance between worker dormitories and factories and increasing the number of labor inspectors.

  Taoyuan labor official Chen Hui-ju (陳慧茹) said her office has also suggested restoration of an earlier rule under which the ministry would be required to approve the hiring of a migrant worker by an employer only if proof of dormitory safety is submitted.

  That rule, under the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers, was removed about one year after the regulations were enacted as a direct result of corporate lobbying, NGO members said.

  The two fires indicate the problem might be negligence in enforcing rules and regulations concerning the rights of migrant workers, something the lawsuit filed by Nguyen Van Trai’s family might be able to shed light on.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Swelling typhoon set to make landfall

  • 2

    Taiwan shuts down as Krathon nears

  • 3

    Outer rim of Krathon reaches Taiwan

  • 4

    Europe’s banks launch Wero payments to dislodge Visa and Mastercard

  • 5

    Taipei mayor defends typhoon holiday declaration