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)