This year, more than 100 workers have reportedly died due to accidents on construction sites. An average of one worker died every two days on construction sites. Following President Lee Jae-myung's directive for severe penalties for POSCO E&C, which has seen four worker fatalities this year, there are prospects for a broader examination of safety management deficiencies within the entire construction industry.
On the 7th, the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety (KALIS) analyzed construction accident cases from its Comprehensive Safety Management Information Network (CSI), revealing that 113 fatalities had occurred due to construction accidents this year up to last month. The number of fatalities is even higher at 121. This means that approximately 5.9% of all construction accidents (1,900 cases) during this period resulted in fatalities.
Fatalities due to accidents in the construction industry have increased compared to the previous year. An analysis by the Ministry of Employment and Labor of the first quarter's industrial accident reports showed that while the number of fatalities from construction accidents decreased by one compared to the same period last year, the number of deaths increased by seven. Although the number of accidents decreased by 1.6% compared to last year, fatalities rose by 10.9%.
It appears that fatalities have increased due to the occurrence of more severe accidents, such as the fire at a construction site in Busan's Gijang County in January and the bridge collapse on the Sejong-Anseong Expressway in February.
Construction accident fatalities primarily involve older workers and foreigners. Additionally, the proportion of deaths among workers with less than one year of experience and those with more than ten years of experience has been found to be high.
Construction fatalities occur more frequently compared to other industries. The death rate per 10,000 workers, known as the accident mortality rate (as of 2022), stands at 1.61 for construction. This is nearly four times higher than the overall industry rate of 0.43. Compared to abroad, it is 14 times higher than in the United Kingdom and approximately 3.5 times higher than in Japan.
While construction companies are strengthening safety management, they acknowledge that accidents sometimes occur due to worker negligence. A representative from a construction company noted, "We are emphasizing the establishment of a more sophisticated safety management system and ensuring that workers are familiar with safety regulations," adding, "However, it is difficult to prevent 100% of unavoidable fatalities from occurring."
Despite the construction companies' claims, there are substantial cases where the causes of accidents, such as the lack of safety facilities, lie with the contractors. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport analyzed the causes of accidental fatalities due to falls at construction sites in February, finding that incidents caused by contractors due to the absence of safety facilities accounted for 66.7%. Cases where workers were the cause due to non-compliance with safety regulations represented 33.3%. Notably, in instances where contractors were found to be at fault, small to mid-sized construction companies ranked outside the top 100 accounted for more than 60%.
President Lee's targeting of POSCO E&C suggests that strong measures against construction accidents will likely be introduced. President Lee directed, "Find and report all legally possible measures, including the cancellation of construction licenses and bans on public tenders," concerning the repeated serious accidents at POSCO E&C.
A representative from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport stated, "We are currently reviewing which regulations can be applied to POSCO E&C in cooperation with other relevant departments," adding, "We will keep all possibilities open, and if necessary, we may also establish a task force (TF) to take additional measures."