KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — The Ministry of Human Resources will establish specific legislation or regulations by extending the responsibility towards construction workers’ safety to include developers and designers.
Its minister M. Kulasegaran said that under the existing rules on employee safety and health, the full burden was on the contractor.
“There must be more stringent compliance, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has already sent it (regulations) to the AG's Chambers, presently only the contractor is liable, so we want to enlarge it to make it (liable to) the contractor, designer and developers because they are part of the team.
"We want them to be jointly responsible, so they can keep up to certain standards. They know they have to fulfil these standards... so it should be coming anytime for me to gazette it," he told reporters today after visiting the construction site of a condominium in Taman Desa which suffered a partial collapse recently.
Asked if the workers injured during the incident had valid work permits, he said the matter was still under investigation and would be known within a week.
He said the DOSH's forensics team was also in the midst of identifying the main cause of the collapse.
"I have been informed that the forensics will look at it, they will take all the cement and other things, our drones have also gone to some difficult places (to reach in person), a report is being prepared and will be made known soon," he said.
Kulasegaran said if any offence was discovered, action would be taken against the developer, but at the same time, he urged people not to speculate on the case.
A 37-storey condominium building under construction in Taman Desa, Jalan Klang Lama partially collapsed on Friday afternoon, leaving two Bangladeshi workers trapped on the first floor.
The building's sixth-floor car park flooring reportedly gave way during heavy rain at 3.30pm.
However, the two victims were rescued at 5.15pm and 9.40pm respectively, and taken to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. — Bernama
