The Taiwan Railway Labor Union chair should not participate in meetings of Taiwan Railway Corp’s (TRC) safety management committee, an external oversight group said yesterday.
The railway operator became a state-run railway company on Jan. 1 after the fatal derailments of express trains in the past six years.
On Oct. 21, 2018, Puyuma Express No. 6432 crashed in Yilan County, killing 18 people and injuring 291.
Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
Forty-nine people died and more than 200 were injured on April 2, 2021, when Taroko Express No. 408 derailed in Hualien County after hitting a crane truck that had slid off an access road to a construction site onto the tracks.
To enhance the safety of the railway system, the Act for Establishment of State-owned Taiwan Railway Co (國營臺灣鐵路股份有限公司設置條例) stipulates that a safety management committee be established to address safety issues and should be directly overseen by the company’s board of directors.
The committee has yet to be established, as the board has not approved the rules of establishment proposed by the railway firm.
The company has proposed that the committee’s convener be a board member assigned by the chair or the board.
The convener could assign one person on the committee to be their deputy, it said.
Among the committee members would be two railway specialists, two university professors, the chairman of the company, with Tu Wei (杜微) currently in the role, and a board member, the company said.
In August last year, families of people who died in the Taroko Express derailment helped to form the TRC Safety Reform Oversight Committee, which has been convening since November last year to make suggestions to help the railway operator improve safety measures.
One of the 13 members of the oversight body is former minister of transportation and communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦).
Minutes of a recent meeting showed that the members of the oversight body said safety issues do not involve the rights and interests of employees, so it would not be appropriate for the chair of the Taiwan Railway Labor Union to be a member of the rail company’s committee.
The rail firm’s committee should rely more on the expertise of external members, they said, adding that the TRC chair should not be a convener.
There should be a clear distinction between the functions of the safety management committee and the TRC’s operational safety department, they said.
The union disagreed with the oversight body’s view.
TRC employees died in major railway incidents, so the union should participate in safety meetings, it said.
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