Labor dep’t finds safety standard ‘lapses’ at Keppel shipyard

MANILA, Philippines—The initial investigation into the accident at the Keppel shipyard in Subic Bay found “lapses” that should be addressed first before the affected portion of the shipyard can reopen, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Tuesday.

Baldoz said that while Keppel had voluntarily shut down the affected portion of the shipyard, it should still implement corrective measures so that the accident, which left six workers dead on Friday, does not happen again.

“They had lapses that were observed based on the technical report of the inspection team,” Baldoz said in an interview.

“It is good that Keppel voluntarily stopped operations where the accident happened but the agreement is they cannot resume until they get clearance from us. Fact is, people died,” she added.

Baldoz over the weekend sent an inspection team from Central Luzon regional office of the Department of Labor and Employment to investigate the accident.

She said the team had submitted the technical part of their investigation report that made recommendations to correct the safety standard “lapses” at the shipyard.

“There should be accredited safety officers in different operations of Keppel. There should also be safety plan that should be approved by DOLE,” Baldoz said.

Baldoz said this initial report would still have to be validated by the investigation also being conducted by the DOLE national office led by Undersecretary for Labor Standards and Social Protection Lourdes Trasmonte.

“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 result of our investigation,” Baldoz said.

“They should come out with corrective measures to be implemented and the timetable when to put these in place. When all is safe, then operations can resume,” she added.

Five workers at the shipyard were killed onsite while another died in hospital after a steel ramp fell on them at around 10:30 a.m. on Friday. Eight other injured workers were brought to the hospital in Olongapo City.

Meanwhile, the Associated Labor Unions called on DOLE to prevent any cover-up of the incident, shield surviving victims and families from “onerous out-of-court offers, and to give other companies lesson not to ignore safety standards in workplaces.”

“There are clear and full of serious breach of the safety standards, rules and procedures. There is no cause for delay. We (the ALU) call on Secretary Baldoz to set a time frame of two weeks in conducting the probe and hold the inquiry in an open, free, and transparent manner so that justice be imposed fully and completely to the victims, survivors, and families of the victims and survivors,” said Gerard Seno, ALU National Vice President.

Seno said that if the DOLE investigation were to go beyond two weeks, families of the victims would become vulnerable “to pressures by company lawyers (thru) disadvantageous out-of-court settlements, and allows time to cover up of key factors surrounding the incident.”

The ALU said that 70 workers had died and more than 60 were injured in 30 workplace incidents in the country since January, including the January 27th death of 10 workers working at the Eton Residences in Makati City.