Dozens of waste collectors yesterday demanded that the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) improve its regulations governing their work safety, after a collector last week died after falling from a garbage truck in Chiayi.
The 41-year-old waste collector, surnamed Tien (田), on Monday last week fell from the back of a truck when it was making a turn, hitting the back of his head and sustaining serious brain injuries.
Tien passed away four days later, on Thursday last week.
Photo: Liu Li-jen, Taipei Times
Waste collectors from across the nation demonstrated in front of the EPA in Taipei, demanding that the agency improve its work standards for garbage collection and improve supervision of local environmental bureaus.
Tien’s death is not an isolated case — 6,692 collectors were injured and 161 died on the job from 2001 to 2011, Federation of Environmental Workers’ Unions chairman Su Chia-yuan (蘇家源) said, citing EPA data.
Collectors work on a tight schedule and can only stay at a collection venue for a few minutes before hurrying to the next one, resulting in many accidents, he said.
While the EPA in 2013 barred workers from standing on the back of garbage trucks, many collectors take the risk to save time, he said.
Local governments — except the Taipei City Government — have failed to implement the standards, Su said, adding that some local politicians have even pressured environmental bureaus to ask collectors to stop at certain venues for the convenience of some residents.
The federation demanded that the EPA improve its work standards for garbage collection, establish an ad hoc committee to promote safety and allocate part of its recycling fund to upgrade local garbage collection facilities.
The agency should also push local bureaus to designate fixed venues for garbage collection in every borough and allow trucks to stay at venues for about 20 minutes to prevent accidents caused when people chase after the trucks, Su said.
Representing the EPA, Bureau of Environmental Inspection Deputy Inspector General Chiang Tsu-nong (姜祖農) met with the demonstrators inside the agency for about a half-hour and promised that he would work to improve work standards and set up a work safety committee.
The agency provides a bereavement payment of NT$1.2 million (US$39,189) to the families of collectors who die on the job and NT$600,000 to the families of collectors who die before or after work, he said.
Although Tien violated work standards by standing on the back of the truck, the EPA would still offer the payment to his family, Chiang added.
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