Bridge workers not registered

News Straits Times Online, 13 Jun 2013

NO GREEN CARD: Contractor of the collapsed Second Penang Bridge ramp may face action

 KEPALA BATAS: THE contractor of the collapsed Second Penang Bridge ramp in Batu Maung may face action for not registering its workers with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

State CIDB director Raslim Salleh said initial investigations revealed that some of the workers at the construction site of Package 3A of the bridge intersection project were not registered with the board.

Raslim said under CIDB Malaysia Act 1994 (Act 520), workers at construction sites must have Industrial Personnel Registration Cards or "Green Cards" to prove that they were registered with the CIDB.

"Our initial investigation revealed that some of the workers at the construction site did not have the Green Card and thus the contractor concerned may face action for not registering their workers with the CIDB as stipulated under the Act 520," he told pressmen after leading a joint-operation with state Immigration Department and Health Department at a construction site in Bertam, here, yesterday.

The three-day joint operations, which began yesterday, was to ensure that contractors adhered to CIDB's regulations by registering their workers with the board and not hiring illegal workers.

In the operations yesterday, 22 foreign workers were rounded up at two construction sites in Bertam. One illegal worker tried to escape into an oil palm estate but surrendered himself after he got stuck in some bushes.

When asked on the type of action against Cergas Murni Sdn Bhd, the contractor working on the bridge intersection project, Raslim declined to elaborate, saying that the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Dosh) was still conducting an investigation into the incident.

In the 7.15pm incident last Thursday a 30-metre wide ramp of the Second Penang Bridge intersection in Batu Maung, which was under-construction, collapsed crushing to death Tajuddin Zainal Abidin, 45, who was in his Perodua Kelisa, and injuring three others.

Tajudin's body was extricated from the 500-tonne rubble more than 24 hours after the incident.

Following the incident, Dosh had began its investigation into the safety aspects at the site while the Works Ministry was setting up a team of experts to investigate the cause of the incident to prevent a recurrence.

Meanwhile, Deputy Works Minister Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin said Tajudin's family had the right to seek legal redress and take the party responsible to court.

"The government sympathises with the family," Rosnah said after visiting the site on the island yesterday.

Rosnah, who met Tajudin's family before the visit, also stressed that their meeting should not be misconstrued.

"Our meeting had nothing to do with trying to deny the family their right to pursue legal action," she said.

 

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