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Family Mourns Dead Worker26 March 2004"Life is priceless,’ says Sun Winson Chai, whose father died after a fall on a Strathfield building site. Winson's father was in a coma for five days before he passed away last week, leaving behind a grieving widow and seven children without a breadwinner. "I want justice,' says Winson. "The boss didn't help me. The boss just wanted to protect himself." The boss is builder John Jin (Jun Jian) of QW International Investments Pty Ltd. He employed, illegally, Winson's father Kow Chey, who was in Australia on a tourist visa, but was employed as cheap labour at John Jin's Strathfield building site. "The safety on the site was appalling," says Andrew Ferguson of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), who has slammed the builder for not even offering to provide assistance for a decent funeral. Kow Chey's family are Bhuddists, who view as very important the rite of praying at the site of where a person passes away. When they approached Mr Jin to pray at the site of their father's deadly fall the builder closed the gates on them. "This is an issue of human decency," says Ferguson. "It demonstrates the bastadry that takes place in workplaces where there is complete contempt for workers." Through the intervention of the CFMEU Kow Chey's family finally accessed the site and the union is campaigning for the builder to pay for the deceased worker's funeral. Winson, who is studying in Australia, says his family lacks money to pay for a funeral or medical expenses following his father's fall. "Fortunately I went to the union to help my family," says Winson. "Many of the members there have treated me like a son." "Before my mother was very down, now she's a lot better because of the justice the CFMEU has brought my family." "You should be very proud of the way your union has helped us." The CFMEU and the Labor Council have also slammed the protocols following such deaths, with emergency services other than police not required to notify WorkCover in the event of such deaths. To discuss this and many other interesting OH & S topics visit our discussion boards at http://unionsafe.labor.net.au/shoptalk/ | |
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