Written in response to a news report. Facts and law may have changed since the publication date.
Four contractor workers died after the October 20 steel-installation accident at TSMC's F22 construction project in Kaohsiung, according to United Daily News's October 21 update. The paper reported that the worker initially hospitalized in intensive care died at 11 p.m. on October 20.
CNA's October 20 evening report had put the toll at three dead and one injured. Citing the Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau, CNA described a suspected bolt failure on a third-floor exterior steel connecting plate. The workers and steel components fell from height during lifting and installation. Steel-lifting work on F22 P4 had stopped, and the bureau was still investigating the cause.
For a US equipment vendor sending field engineers to a Taiwan project, site instructions can matter alongside the employment contract. Article 51(2) applies the Occupational Safety and Health Act to people working at a business's site under its site head's direction or supervision as if they were that business's workers, except for Article 20's physical and health examinations. Who directed the work is therefore a concrete question for the visiting team.
Rescue and reporting have their own timetable
An employer must take necessary first-aid and rescue measures immediately after an occupational accident and investigate, analyze and record the event with worker representatives. For a fatality, Article 37 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires notification to the labor inspection authority within eight hours. The same reporting rule covers the other serious accidents specified in that article, including an accident affecting at least one person who needs inpatient treatment.
Rescue comes first. Beyond necessary rescue, the employer may not move or disturb the scene of a reportable accident without permission from the judicial or labor inspection authorities. Waiting for a full internal explanation does not replace the reporting obligation.
Records of calls, rescue measures and site changes can help a foreign project team establish what happened during those hours. An internal incident email and a statutory notification serve different recipients. Whether each required notification was made is a factual question; the public report does not answer it.
The contract chain does not end with the immediate employer
Where a business contracts out its own business, Article 25 makes the contractor responsible as employer under the Act for the contracted part. It also preserves joint occupational-accident compensation responsibility for the business that contracted out its own work, called the original business unit (原事業單位) in the Act. The rule extends to subcontracting.
Whether a chipmaker commissioning a new plant is contracting out its own business is a question for labor inspectors and, if disputed, the courts. The reports so far do not answer it. The construction contract, subcontract scope and actual division of work are relevant evidence.
For employment relationships covered by the Labor Standards Act, Article 59 provides occupational-accident compensation for medical costs, wages during qualifying inability to work, disability and death, under the conditions for each category. Employer-funded statutory compensation for the same accident may be credited as the article allows. Article 62 applies when a business contracts out its own business and the work is subcontracted again. For workers used on their respective portions, contractors and intermediate contractors share compensation responsibility with the final contractor. A business or contractor that pays may seek reimbursement from the final contractor.
A family therefore needs more than a list of companies. Employment documents, wage records, medical evidence and the chain of contracts help identify both the claimant's entitlement and the parties against whom it may arise. They identify wages, injuries and contractual roles that the public account leaves open.
Risk assessment and coordination before the accident
The applicable safety duties reach the arrangements made before work began. Under Article 26, a business outsourcing its own business must first assess the risks, tell the contractor the assessment results concerning the work environment, hazards and required safety equipment and measures, and ensure implementation during the contract. Contractors outsourcing their portion have corresponding obligations.
Joint work brings additional duties. For outsourced work within a business's own business, Article 27 requires coordination when its workers and contractor or subcontractor workers work together. Measures include a coordination organization, a designated site head, work coordination, inspections, training assistance and entry controls. If a business contracts out its own work to two or more contractors working together without joining that work itself, it must designate one contractor to bear the original business unit's responsibilities under the first paragraph.
Taiwan's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Ministry of Labor, confirms that the amendment took effect on July 1, 2026 in its implementation notice. Articles 26 and 27 use the amended wording.
Project owners have a separate route of responsibility for construction above the specified scale. Article 15-1 addresses design-stage hazard analysis, safety plans and costs, and oversight of implementation. Article 27-1 requires an owner commissioning two or more constructors to designate one for integrated safety management. These provisions do not use the own-business condition. The implementing regulation sets the project thresholds; its designation rule took effect in July 2026, while several design and related duties are phased in during 2027 and 2028. Applying them to this site requires its classification, contract timing and management records, which the reports do not supply.
Who was coordinating the lifting operation? What assessment and instructions covered it? These remain matters for evidence. The public report cannot establish compliance or noncompliance with each duty.
Compensation, damages and a criminal investigation
Article 25 treats joint damages separately from occupational compensation. Its second paragraph requires the original business unit's violation of the Act or related safety rules to cause an occupational accident affecting a contractor's worker. A safety violation and the causal connection must be established; the occurrence of an accident alone does not prove them.
Other claims may require different evidence. Civil Code Article 184 addresses tort liability, while Criminal Code Article 276 concerns causing death through negligence. Neither makes liability follow automatically from a job title or a contractor's presence on site.
A criminal investigation is under way. CNA reported on the evening of October 21 that the Qiaotou District Prosecutors Office had inspected the site and examined the bodies. After questioning, prosecutors found strong suspicion of negligent homicide against two on-site supervisors, one from a steel-structure firm and one from its subcontractor, Shang Hao Machinery (上昊機械). Each was released on NT$1 million bail with a residence restriction, and prosecutors said they would keep investigating the cause and whether anyone bears criminal responsibility. None of this is a conviction. Under Code of Criminal Procedure Article 154, an accused person is presumed innocent until a conviction is final, and criminal facts must be proved by evidence. The suspected bolt failure remains under investigation.
Documents that connect the people and the project
Attorney Wei Tseng (曾雋崴) of Hovering International Law Firm (昊鼎國際法律事務所) takes questions about Taiwan contractor responsibilities and accident claims at wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw. A worker's family and an overseas contractor may approach the same incident with different documents; the review needs to connect the employment relationship, contracted work, safety arrangements and loss claimed.
Our offices are at 7F-2, No. 35, Sec. 1, Chengde Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103, Taiwan (103 臺北市大同區承德路一段35號7樓之2), and 6F-1, No. 19, Guanqian Rd., North Dist., Taichung City 40453, Taiwan (40453 臺中市北區館前路19號6樓之1). For this kind of accident, the contract identifying who undertook the work belongs beside the record of what happened on site.
Sources
- United Daily News, Kaohsiung TSMC construction accident: death toll rises to four, October 21, 2026, 8:56 a.m., updated 9:09 a.m. Taiwan time.
- CNA, Four deaths at TSMC Kaohsiung site: two on-site supervisors released on NT$1 million bail each, October 21, 2026, 5:31 p.m., updated 5:51 p.m. Taiwan time.
- CNA, Kaohsiung TSMC construction accident: three dead and one injured; steel installation stopped, October 20, 2026, updated 11:02 p.m. Taiwan time.
- Occupational Safety and Health Act, Article 25, Article 26, Article 27 and Article 37, current text checked October 21, 2026.
- Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Ministry of Labor), amendment implementation notice, effective July 1, 2026.
- Occupational Safety and Health Act, Article 15-1, Article 27-1 and Article 51; 工程安全設計及整體工程統合管理辦法, Articles 2, 3, 15, 20 and 21 and Annex 3.
- Labor Standards Act, Article 59 and Article 62, checked October 21, 2026.
- Civil Code, Article 184; Criminal Code, Article 276; Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 154, checked October 21, 2026.
Checked: October 22, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
- When can a business share responsibility for its contractor's worker?
- Where a business contracts out its own business, Occupational Safety and Health Act Article 25 preserves joint occupational-accident compensation responsibility with the contractor. Whether a project owner meets that condition requires examination of the work and contracts. Joint damages under the second paragraph also require the original business's violation of the Act or related safety rules to cause injury to a contractor's worker.
- When must a fatal occupational accident be reported?
- Article 37 requires the employer to notify the labor inspection authority within eight hours. It also requires immediate first aid and rescue. Apart from necessary rescue, the employer may not move or disturb the scene without permission from the judicial or labor inspection authorities. Other specified serious accidents also trigger notification.
- Does the report establish that a particular company committed an offense?
- No. The October 20 report attributed a suspected mechanism to the Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau and said the cause was still being examined. On October 21, prosecutors released two on-site supervisors on bail on suspicion of negligent homicide, but that is an investigative step, not a charge or a finding of guilt. Criminal liability requires proof of the offense, and the presumption of innocence applies until a conviction is final.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.
