GMA responds to DoLE’s findings on Eddie Garcia incident

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 11:23:49 +0000

 

EDDIE Garcia

EDDIE Garcia

GMA Network has addressed the preliminary findings of the Depart­ment of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on the incident involving the late actor Eddie Garcia.

The TV network filed its comment Monday, Sept. 16. The statement answered three points raised by the government agency, that GMA allegedly made three violations under the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Oc­cupational Safety and Health (OSH) Law: Failure to submit an incident report within 24 hours, to employ or designate a safety officer, and to employ or designate a certified First Aider.

Recall that Garcia, 90, sustained severe cervical fracture after trip­ping and falling while shooting scenes for a now cancelled TV series. The actor was in critical condition for nearly two weeks before eventually succumbing to his injuries, June 20.

After completing its own investi­gation, the network claimed they initially gave a copy of the results to the family of Mr. Garcia “as a matter of respect and thereafter voluntarily submitted a copy to the DOLE on July 5, 2019 in compliance with the law and its IRR.”

The network likewise noted that the IRR, as worded, states that such a case of “work accidents result­ing in disabling injury or death” is an exception to the requirement that a report be made within 24 hours from the occurrence.

Nonetheless, GMA submitted the report within one (1) month from the accident which occurred last June 8, 2019.

On having a designated safety officer in the workplace, GMA said it had “sufficient number of DOLE-certified safety officers catering to its employees.”

“The ‘workplace’ cov­ered by the OSH Law is deemed to refer only to those places where services of the employees are regularly ren­dered. The IRR cannot expand the coverage of the law to include temporary, moving, or shifting lo­cations. Ex­tending said requirement of the law through the IRR to all temporary taping locations would unreasonably burden the industry with a requirement which is beyond the contemplation of the law,” it read.

“GMA maintains safety and secu­rity in tapings t
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