Another worker killed at Hanjin facility in Subic

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines — Another worker at the shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries Corporation-Philippines (HHIC-Phil) was killed on Wednesday after a duct weighing 250 kilograms fell on him as he was unshackling it for painting work. This is the 17th shipbuilding and construction related fatality at the sprawling South Korean facility here. A Hanjin accident report showed that Jose Vener Gil, a 42-year old resident of Subic, Zambales, died on the way to the hospital. The victim worked for Philnorkor, a subcontractor of HHIC-Phil. Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said that a team of investigators were dispatched to determine the cause of the accident. Pyeong Jong Yu, deputy managing director of HHIC-Phils, in a statement said that they have also launched a full scale investigation to determine if the death “the result of result of an industrial mishap, unavoidable human error, or simply the negligence of Philnorkor during the construction work." If accident was caused by laxity in the observance of rules and regulations on occupational safety, according to Yu, “anyone, regardless of nationality, will be made answerable." Last July 14, government regulators ordered Hanjin to stop it operations in its one of its assembly shop after an 8-ton girder assemble being lifted by a crane fatally struck a worker at the back of his head. Despite a series of fatal accidents, government regulators have not filed any court case related to occupational safety against the shipbuilding giant, its officials, or any of its subcontractors, based on any of the investigations it has conducted in the past. However, last June 20, the SBMA slapped the Korean shipbuilder with another cease and desist order after a steel formwork collapsed due to strong winds, killing one worker and injuring four others. - GMANews.TV