Hanjin looks at safety

Following a spate of fatal accidents at the shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. in Subic, Philippines, the shipbuilder decided to form a special committee that would monitor compliance of its subcontractors with international safety standards in shipbuilding works.

“We will try to level up safety awareness of all those concerned, including subcontractors, to the extent of international standard. In addition, we will form a special committee to monitor and implement safety matters,” Pyeong Jong Yu, HHIC-Philippines general manager, said. Pyeong announced the plan without saying whether the death of two workers on Monday night at Hanjin?s shipyard off the Redondo Bay in Subic, Zambales, was the result of an accident or was due to breaches in safety rules by its Filipino subcontractor, the Globe Distribution Services.

The latest incident brought to five the number of work-related deaths at the South Korean-owned facility since December last year. A worker died when he fell off a truck driven by a Korean engineer on 24 December. Two workers died on 18 January when an explosion occurred from a supposedly leaking oxygen tank. On 10 March a part of a crane fell on two workers killing them instantly.

The labour and ecology departments of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, which are investigating the recent deaths, have yet to confirm reports that another worker died after falling off a roof of a building at the shipyard last Tuesday. HHIC-Philippines would enforce “‘stricter training and supervision on hazardous work to minimize recurrence of similar incident, if not preventing [this] completely,” Pyeong said.

“It was and will be our concern that our employees, including subcontractors must be well aware of what is shipbuilding and its incidental activities,” he said. He went on to say that it has been “very difficult for us to find subcontractors satisfying our requirement and expectation.” The work of Filipino subcontractors was being limited for now to loading and unloading of ships? equipment.

“‘We are hiring many Filipino companies but when it comes to some work directly related to shipbuilding, Korean subcontractors only are contracted at this time, mainly because we cannot find qualified and experienced local companies,” he said.