Shipbuilder told to build hospital after another worker dies

OLONGAPO CITY—The lawyer of a workers’ group in a Korean-owned shipyard in the Subic Bay Freeport has urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to compel the company’s officials to put up a hospital following another accident that killed one of its workers on Jan. 23.

Lawyer Virgie Suarez Pinlac, counsel of the Samahan ng Manggagawa sa Hanjin, confirmed the death of Bonifacio Palarca, 26, a welder at the shipbuilding facility of the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines.

Pinlac said Palarca, a resident of Tarlac province, was working in the hull piping and outfitting section of the shipyard’s Dock 6 last week when his cutting hose caught fire and burned his body.

“If Hanjin can build a four to 10-story ship, it’s capable of building its own hospital,” she said.

Pinlac said Hanjin’s medical clinic on its work site is not enough to deal with medical emergencies.

“What they (workers) need is an on-site emergency hospital that has enough number of doctors that are available 24 hours a day,” she said.

“Rushing the injured workers to the nearest hospital by speed boat is not enough. The DOLE must implement the law and compel Hanjin officials to build their own hospital to provide immediate treatment to the injured workers. That’s what we want to emphasize,” Pinlac added.

She said she received reports that another worker died in December when a sheet of steel fell on him while another is in a coma when he fell from a scaffolding this month.

The Inquirer had tried to reach Hanjin officials since Sunday but calls made to Allan Edgar Lobo, the company’s external affairs manager, had not been returned.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chair Roberto Garcia said his agency has received a report on Palarca’s death in the Hanjin shipyard.

Garcia said the SBMA would extend assistance to Palarca’s family.

Pinlac said the Labor Code mandates that if a company has more than 300 employees, it must have an emergency 10-bed hospital and additional bed for every 100 additional employees.

“Just imagine how necessary for Hanjin to have an emergency hospital, occupational health physicians, dentists, nurses and first aid responders considering that it has more than 23,000 workers?” she said.

Pinlac said the number of workers dying from diseases and accidents in the shipyard has reached 40 in the first quarter of 2009, the year a Senate inquiry on workers’ deaths was held. Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon