Death at project site triggers state probe

The death of a construction company employee at downtown San Jose’s Silvery Towers site Thursday has triggered a state worker-safety probe into the development, which was already marred by allegations of underpayment of workers and project delays.

The investigation by Cal OSHA began after the discovery that a person had fallen at the Silvery Towers site, where two residential towers are being built at 188 W. St. James Street near North San Pedro Street.

The deceased individual, whose identity wasn’t immediately released, was on the payroll of Swinerton, a consultant on the construction project , which is being developed by China-based Full Power Properties, whose local offices are in Foster City.

“At approximately 6:00 am (Thursday) morning a fall occurred at a new res- idential tower construction project currently underway in San Jose’s downtown district,” according to Swinerton. “The incident resulted in the death of a Swinerton employee who had previously been a part of the team assisting the owner with consulting services.”

Swinerton notified the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal OSHA, about the incident.

“Cal OSHA was notified at 10 a.m. of the fatality at Silvery Towers,” said Luke Brown, a spokesman for the state agency. “Cal OSHA is now investigating the incident.”

The state agency typically requires four to six months to complete such investigations.

Medical crews attempted to revive the victim, but were not successful, according to Swinerton.

“Safety is our number one priority; when something like this happens, we want to know why,” Swin-

erton stated.

Full Power and Swinerton are working with the project’s contractor, Foster City-based FPC Builders, and state investigators to help determine a cause.

“Initial findings indicate this death was not related to construction activities,” Swinerton said. “We are actively working with Cal OSHA and local authorities investigating the incident and cooperating fully to meet their requests for information.”

The Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office confirmed it was reviewing the situation, but said no information was being released as of late Thursday regarding the death.

The Silvery Towers construction site was closed Thursday and was scheduled to reopen on Monday, Aug. 20.

The development had previously landed in controversy over investigations related to wages and working conditions for construction workers on the site.

Questionable wage and labor practices at Silvery Towers first surfaced in 2017 when more than a dozen immigrant workers, who authorities said were being held in captivity in a Hayward warehouse, were freed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Federal prosecutors and Hayward police claimed that Job Torres Hernandez forced his workers at Silvery Towers and other construction projects around the Bay Area to work without pay. Hernandez was indicted on charges of harboring illegal immigrants for commercial advantage or private financial gain.

On July 18, the U.S. Labor Department announced that after its investigation into the pay violations, 22 workers were paid $250,000 by Foster City-based Full Power Properties, the Chinese developer of the 650-unit Silvery Towers project. The department said that when not on the job, those workers had “lived in captivity in squalid conditions in a warehouse” controlled by Job Torres, an unlicensed subcontractor doing business as Nobilis Construction.