Guyana plans to sue Chinese timber company Jailing Forest Industries for failing to properly report the death of a Malaysian man in their employ, Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir said Friday.

Hep Kai Kan, 60, an on-site supervisor for the company, was crushed to death by a falling tree on Tuesday in the company's forest concession in Guyana's north-western Amazon jungle.

Police said that he was killed by a tree that was being cut. However company spokesman Lennox Cornette said the tree being cut crashed into a second tree that then killed Kan, 60.

In the former case a court could rule it was the company's fault, while in the latter case it could be argued that the death was accidental.

Nadir said the timber company would be prosecuted for failing to immediately report the incident, in keeping with Guyana workplace laws.

"This was not done and I don't see any reason why we should not move to prosecution," Nadir told AFP .

If found guilty, the employer - the company manager in the capital Georgetown - could be sent to prison for three months and fined up to US$250.

Late report

Cornette said the report of the workplace death was sent to the Labour Ministry on Friday.

The report was "inadvertently" late due to poor communication between employees at the concession, located more than 260 kilometers (160 miles) north-west of Georgetown, and the company management on the coastland.

Nadir said he plans to aggressively seek compensation for the Malaysian man's family, in accordance with Guyana's Workmen's Compensation Act.

Jailing Forest Industries Inc. has a 156,238 hectare (386,072 acre) concession in north-western Guyana, where it harvests a variety of hardwoods and other species for export to Asian and Caribbean markets.

- AFP