Families of 30 workers who suffered injuries during an accident
at the Three Gorges Dam Project have received a total compensation
of nearly US$1 million from a US company.
The settlement was reported by Xinhua yesterday.
The deal for US$990,000 is the first compensation that the
American-based Rotec Industries Inc will pay to settle the
September 3, 2000 incident in which three workers were killed and
30 others injured.
The incident occurred when a rupture of a Rotec machine at the
construction site occurred.
For two years, 30 injured workers have not received compensation
for their losses. The three deceased victims families were given
80,000 to 100,000 yuan (US$9,600 to US$12,000) as compensation.
When negotiations between the injured victims and the company
were stalled, the families turned to the Wuhan Intermediate
People's Court in Central China's Hubei Province last March.
They sought a total compensation of 30 million yuan (US$3.6
million) from the firm.
"The problem is that China has no law setting standards for
computation of compensation involving foreign products," a judge
with the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court who declined to give her
name said during a telephone interview.
"Applying the current compensation standards to a company from
developed countries would be against the principle of fairness,"
the judge said.
Therefore, she and her colleagues made efforts to arbitrate an
agreement on a voluntary basis.
The judge didn't disclose the final compensation amount, but she
said settlement will give the injured workers reasonable
compensation.
Insiders said the case is the first one to answer questions like
whether China's Product Quality Law can be applied to foreign
products, and will be helpful in setting standards for computation
of damages in future cases.
Before the accident, a worker fell to his death from a lift
attached to Rotec machine at a Three Gorges Dam Project site on
November 19, 1999.
The worker's wife, Ke Changli, sought help from the court in
getting compensation from Rotec, but before the court intervened
the two sides reached an amicable settlement.
(China Daily January 17, 2004)