The parent company of Launch Technologies Co (明揚國際) has been fined about NT$680,000 for occupational safety hazards at its six plants, after a blaze at a Launch Technologies factory in Pingtung County last month killed nine people.
The announcement on Tuesday by the Ministry of Labor is the result of its investigation into the golf ball manufacturer and its parent company, Advanced International Multitech Co (AD Group, 明安國際), following the Sept. 22 fire.
Last week, the other six factories operated by AD Group underwent comprehensive labor inspections, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said in a news release, adding that one had ceased operations, while the others mainly produce golf clubs and carbon fiber bicycle components.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
No large quantities of organic peroxides were found at the factories, which was the explosion hazard used to make golf ball cores that was stored illegally at the Pingtung factory, OSHA said.
However, investigators did find instances in which flammable gasses and liquids were not stored in hazard zones in contravention of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), it said.
Employees working in high-temperature conditions were also not given proper protective gear, it added.
AD Group was fined a total of NT$680,000 for 16 contraventions of the act and instructed to improve eight of them, subject to follow-up inspections, OSHA said.
Investigators also identified six contraventions of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), including cutting employee hours without notifying the authorities, and would be disciplined accordingly, it added.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
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