THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) 7 has issued an order stopping the contractor of a 32-story building project on Archbishop Reyes Ave. in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City following an accident on Aug. 20, 2019 that damaged eight private vehicles.
The project site was issued the work stoppage order on the same day.
Construction workers were pouring cement in some parts of the 31st floor of the building when debris fell and hit private cars below, the Dole 7 inquiry showed.
The vehicles had come to a halt as the traffic light was red at the time.
The Dole 7 withheld the names of the project and its contractor.
Based on the occupational safety and health investigation, the labor inspectors learned that the construction site had no debris catchers.
Dole 7 Director Salome Siaton said the cement debris dented some of the vehicles and cracked the windshields of other vehicles.
“It was fortunate enough that no one was hurt in the incident,” Siaton said.
Emmanuel Ferrer, Dole Tri-City Field Office head, said he sent three labor inspectors to the site, and the personnel issued the work stoppage order after their inspection.
Ferrer also found out that the contractor failed to implement structural analysis, methodology and safety work procedures when its workers applied the cement.
The other violations the inspectors discovered include the building’s lack of barricades on each of its floors, the construction site’s absence of a safety officer or occupational health nurse on site; and the project site’s lack of certificate of testing for its tower crane and Alimak rack.
The developers also reportedly failed to provide a second-degree certification from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority for their heavy equipment operators.
Ferrer further said the Dole 7 did not receive an incident report from the contractor, which also violated the general labor standards—it failed to provide adequate salaries to its workers, pay their regular holiday payments, remit their Social Security System, Philhealth and Pag-ibig contributions, and it failed to provide the payroll and daily time record for its workers.
“They should be able to show to us full compliance to the standards first before they could resume their operations within the project site. We have to see, evaluate and assess that all unsafe practices exposing the workers and the general public to imminent danger conditions have been corrected,” Siaton said. (From HBL of SuperBalita Cebu, JKV)