The Control Yuan on Tuesday censured the Ministry of Education (MOE) for failing to ensure the safety of students doing internships in the private sector as part of academia-enterprise collaborative programs, following the death of a Vietnamese student intern last year.
A Vietnamese student from the Lee-Ming Institute of Technology on May 17 last year was crushed to death by a loaded 1.8m-high dough cart that weighed more than 100kg at a pastry company factory in New Taipei Industrial Park, the Control Yuan said.
The student was an intern at the factory as part of a special program aimed at boosting collaboration between universities and the private sector under the government’s New Southbound Policy.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Control Yuan members Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲) and Wang Mei-yu (王美玉) on Tuesday presented screenshots of surveillance camera footage showing the student trying to push the cart up a short ramp while another intern pulled the cart from the other side.
The cart then slid towards the student and fell on top of her, crushing her to death, Wang Yu-ling said.
One day after the incident, the New Taipei City Labor Standards Inspection Office conducted an on-site inspection and determined that there was a “failure to take prevention measures,” such as using a more suitable cart or loading the dough differently.
It ruled out that the two people moving the cart had used “unsafe practices” and said that the company was responsible.
The two Control Yuan members cited the ministry’s failure to tender a draft student internship bill despite having begun work on it in April 2017 as one of the reasons for the censure.
The ministry’s evaluation form, which universities filled in with details on companies being considered to run student internship programs, was a formality, the members said, adding the ministry did not rate premises on their occupational safety.
The pastry company had received a near-perfect score on its evaluation before the incident, which provided grounds for the school’s initial refusal in July last year to replace the company over the incident, Wang Yu-ling said.
However, the office’s inspection of the company’s premises in May last year found 13 violations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), she said.
This showed that even though the ministry forwarded registers of companies selected for academia-enterprise internship programs to local labor authorities, there was still a failure to rule out companies with poor track records of occupational safety standards, she added.
Although the ministry said it ordered the company to make improvements after the accident, Control Yuan members who launched a surprise inspection at the pastry factory on Jan. 26 said they found other potential occupational hazards.
These included the lack of signs posted near ovens to warn people of high temperatures, and near walk-in freezers warning that those could only be opened from the outside, they said.
In response, the ministry said it has ordered universities to evaluate the occupational safety of company premises where student internship programs are to take place to make sure they conform to safety standards.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS