COMMENT | Lock up errant bosses who cause pain and misery

COMMENT | It was May 28, 2009, to be exact. Renovations were underway at the Jaya Supermarket building in Section 14, Petaling Jaya, when a sudden rumble hours later left seven workers dead.

Initial investigations suggested that overloaded heavy machinery caused the collapse. Authorities had failed to account for the weight of the equipment during demolition, and the roof, unable to bear the excess load, gave way.

Notably, the Occupational Safety and Health Department (Dosh) had not approved the demolition work. The developers only secured permission from the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) - a local authority with no mandate on workplace safety.

A year later, two companies faced charges under Section 15(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994:

• Lian Hup Earth Work & Construction Sdn Bhd, represented by its director, Jason Hee Kok Heng

• CW Yap Sdn Bhd, represented by its director, Yap Choon Wai

The maximum penalty? A laughable RM50,000 fine, two years’ jail, or both.

I wrote at the time: “Calling our safety standards ‘sufficient’ is a gross understatement. Walk onto any construction site, and you’ll find workers without helmets or proper boots.

“Contractors cut corners, skipping safety investments - but are developers and consultants blameless? Shouldn’t they enforce legal minimum standards?”

Enforcement is the core issue. Countless agencies oversee construction, yet they often work in silos rather than in collaboration.

Without a cohesive plan, injuries and deaths are dismissed as “just another accident”.

The Jaya supermarket tragedy should have jolted all parties into taking responsibility - but did it?”

Worksite deaths, injuries persist

Fast-forward to 2021: Dosh made headlines, boasting that construction-sector deaths had declined, crediting its own “measures”.

The fatality rate, it claimed, dropped from 14.57 per 100,000 workers (2017) to 11.28 (2019).

Yet, compared to the UK or Singapore, Malaysia’s workplace accident rates remain disgracefully high. Dosh insisted that amended laws served as a “deterrent”.

A deterrent? Is this justice? I cited three Ipoh cases where offenders walked away with meagre fines. When will we demand custodial sentences?

• A scaffolding company in Ipoh was fined RM35,000 after its director, Lau Kiew Ling, 39, pleaded guilty on behalf of Team Force Scaffolding and Insulation Sdn Bhd for causing the death of two migrant workers through negligence under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

• Yoonsteel (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd director Loke Yoon Chee, 63, was fined RM25,000 after he pleaded guilty to failing to ensure safe workplace conditions at the Tasek Industrial Estate, which caused two workers to lose their fingers in separate incidents.

• Team Some Sdn Bhd director Ceylyn Tay Wei Lung, 44, paid a fine of RM25,000 and pleaded guilty to failing to ensure safe workplace conditions in the Ringan Kinta Jaya light industrial area, which caused Noor Khairunnisa Khairul Azmi, 25, to lose two joints on the index finger of the right hand.

Call for jail terms

In a commentary in 2021, I wrote: “In view of the increasing workplace casualties, England amended the laws 10 years ago, classifying the causing of deaths at worksites as ‘manslaughter’.

“Last year, Hans Rao was jailed for four years for ‘manslaughter by gross negligence’ after a worker was crushed to death at a worksite.”

Quoting cases in Australia and Singapore, I asked: “Compare and consider this and the three Ipoh cases. My reading is that if it happened in Australia, a few directors would have been in jail.

“Is it too difficult to amend the law for mandatory custodial sentences, or will the powerful construction and manufacturing industries lobby against it?”

My call fell on deaf ears as the entire BN/Umno cabinet was more interested in providing “bullets” to take on former attorney-general Tommy Thomas and checking if he had breached the Official Secrets Act.

Much later, they were all engrossed in a non-starter - justice for Najib Abdul Razak and later freedom for the ex-premier, while many other important issues were put on the back burner.

But there is a ray of hope. After a bus crash claimed the lives of 15 university students, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said has proposed introducing a new legislation.

She suggested something along the lines of the United Kingdom’s Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. But when will it come?

Not just for careless bus drivers and their errant owners, but also developers, contractors, and other employers who care little for the safety in the workplace.

PS: There is no need to send a rombongan (delegation) to London on a lawatan sambil belajar (educational trip) to “study” the laws, as there is plenty, even for laypeople, to be found on the internet.

R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who strives to uphold the ethos of civil rights leader John Lewis: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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