Keppel had no safety plan, says Labor chief
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
The Keppel Subic shipyard did not have a safety officer on the scene when a steel ramp collapsed crushing five workers to death last Friday, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Tuesday.
Baldoz, citing initial findings of the Department of Labor and Employment’s investigation into the accident, also said that Keppel lacked a safety plan.
“Those are the things that we found–no safety officer and no safety health plan at the time of the accident,” she said.
Baldoz said the lack of a safety officer was the “number one violation” uncovered by the DOLE team that went to the shipyard hours after the accident.
She said that in a facility like Keppel, “there should be a regular reassessment (of safety issues) because of the nature of the operation.”
“Keppel has an internationally certified safety and health system,” she said. “I would like to think that it was not implemented.”
Baldoz said that after the accident, Keppel closed down the area “until corrective measures recommended by the DOLE are in place.”
“It’s good that Keppel voluntarily stopped operations where the accident happened but the agreement is that they cannot resume until they get a clearance from us. The fact is, people died,” she said.
“There should be accredited safety officers in different operations of Keppel. There should also be a safety plan that should be approved by the DOLE,” she added.
“We will also sit down with management and a safety expert from Singapore to look into the cause of the accident. We will discuss with them the results of our investigation,” she said.
Five shipyard workers were killed onsite while another died later in a hospital after a steel ramp fell on them at around 10:30 a.m. on Friday. Eight injured workers were brought to a hospital in Olongapo City.
Meanwhile, the Associated Labor Unions called on the DOLE to prevent a cover-up of the incident and to shield the survivors from “onerous out of court offers.” It also urged the department to “teach other companies a lesson and not ignore safety standards in the workplace.” With a report from Philip C. Tubeza
Originally posted: 5:26 pm | Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
