Tsou, Tzu-Lien, director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Ministry of Labor, led labor inspectors from the Center for Occupational Safety and Health of central region to supervise the “Taichung Power Plant Units 1-10 Coal Supply System Improvement Project” and “New construction for Pier 36 of Taichung Port” on April 16. In addition to supervising the improvement of the occupational disaster site, Tsou, Tzu-Lien also enforced labor inspections on other construction sites for the same project.

The OSHA of the Ministry of Labor stated that on March 2, 2020, illegal usage of an excavator for suspending the drill pipe was found in the “Taichung Power Plant Units 1-10 Coal Supply System Improvement Project,” causing the drill pipe to fall and one worker was killed. In addition, on May 18, 2019, in the same area, the working platform of the “New construction for Pier 36 of Taichung Port” was tilted, causing the crane on the ship to slide and hit the scaffold, causing the death of one worker working on the scaffold. These are disasters caused by noncompliance of standard procedures. As a result, these 2 projects were particularly selected to implement a comprehensive labor inspection, so as to urge the business units to actively improve and exercise construction safety and health management after these occupational disasters.

Tsou, Tzu-Lien said that the Ministry of Labor has held an interdepartmental meeting for disaster reduction in state-owned public enterprises, and set a goal of reducing the number of major occupational disasters in state-owned enterprises by 30% every year starting from 2020. Various of disaster prevention efforts have been implemented, including the reinforcement of labor inspection. The purpose is to urge business units to take proper safety protection in ordinary times, rather than to punish them. The working sites of state-owned public enterprises are all over the island, and the operational risks are higher, which is why safety and health management should be reinforced so that workers could have a safe and healthy working environment, and set an example for private business units.