Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to the president, on the 7th referenced the recent deaths of sanitation workers in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang, and in Seoul, noting that "the workplace where people go to earn a living must not become a scene of death."
Kang said at the 49th senior secretaries and aides meeting on the afternoon of the 7th that "from 2023 to last year, industrial accidents involving sanitation workers averaged 836 cases annually." With President Lee Jae-myung on a state visit to France, Kang chaired the meeting.
Kang said that "even though the government made 'three-person crews' and 'daytime shifts' mandatory for sanitation worker safety starting in Dec. 2019, exceptions are being issued indiscriminately in the field," emphasizing that this is not due to negligence by individual establishments or local governments but accidents stemming from structural problems.
Kang then ordered the relevant ministries, including the climate ministry, the labor ministry, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), to identify why the work principles are not functioning on the ground and to inspect the widespread use of exceptions. He also called for effective countermeasures.
In addition, he pointed to the recent surge in vacancies at Knowledge Industry Complexes and poor management, and ordered the preparation of fundamental institutional improvements.
He noted that among Knowledge Industry Complexes completed over the past three years, the average unsold rate stands at 27% and the vacancy rate reaches 44%, with some areas in poor locations exceeding a 70% vacancy rate and effectively being left as "ghost buildings."
Kang said, "People are being deceived by false and exaggerated advertising and are suffering damage from schemes such as fraudulent sales and split resales."
He went on to order the swift preparation of a comprehensive package, including: ▲ proactively pursuing conversion of use to resolve vacancy issues, ▲ overhauling tenant industries and qualifications in line with industry trends, and ▲ refining oversight systems to break the vicious cycle of presales followed by neglect.