Highwealth Construction’s record over the past five years shows that its corporate culture “does not prioritize occupational safety,” Deputy Minister of Labor Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said yesterday.
Lee made remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, where he briefed lawmakers on how the ministry plans to address a labor shortage in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era and reduce workplace accidents.
The Taipei-based construction firm came under scrutiny after a Taichung MRT train on Wednesday last week crashed into a crane boom that fell onto the tracks from the company’s construction site near the line, killing one person and injuring 10.
Photo: CNA
Highwealth Construction has been ordered to partially shut down its sites multiple times over the past five years for contravening occupational safety regulations, but the company did not seem to care being repeatedly penalized, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Hui-yuan (賴惠員) said.
Lai asked whether the ministry has investigated problems with Highwealth Construction’s operations.
The ministry has fined Highwealth NT$14 million (US$455,048) for last week’s incident, but New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that the punishment is light for a construction firm.
“An apartment in Taipei costs more than NT$14 million. I propose that the fines be calculated based on a fixed percentage of its housing sales revenue, as stated in the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法),” Wang said.
Five Highwealth Construction subsidiaries were found to have contravened occupational safety regulations during the 56 inspections the ministry has conducted over the past five years, Lee said.
“It is a clear indicator that Highwealth Construction’s corporate culture does not prioritize occupational safety,” Lee said.
Last week’s incident was caused by the failure of workers to operate the tower crane based on standardized procedures, not by mechanical issues, the ministry’s investigation showed.
The ministry plans to complete labor inspections at 30 sites managed by Highwealth Construction within two weeks, Lee said.
“We also plan to inspect its construction sites that have tower cranes within one month,” he said.
The Construction and Planning Agency, which regulates construction firms, would be alerted about those that frequently contravene occupational safety regulations, Lee said, adding that the agency could place them on a watchlist or require them to stop work.
The fine handed down to Highwealth Construction was quite high compared with those issued in other cases, Lee said.
“The Act for Protecting Workers from Occupational Accidents (職業災害勞工保護法) applies to large and small construction firms. We must consider how the penalties would affect small contractors or those that have an accident for the first time,” he said. “There might be a change to allow increased fines for repeat offenders.”
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to