Minister Kim Young-hoon of the Ministry of Employment and Labor said on the 14th, "Accidents caused by trying to save on expense and repeated accidents are absolutely intolerable," adding, "We are preparing strong sanctions for corporations that repeatedly have serious accidents."
That afternoon, Minister Kim revealed this at a meeting with CEOs of major construction companies held at Seoul City Tower in Jung-gu, Seoul.
He stated, "In just the last year, there have been nearly 600 tragic deaths of workers in the industrial field," adding that "close to half of those (276 people) occurred at construction sites."
Minister Kim noted, "The stigma of being a kingdom of industrial accidents at the world's top level does not fit our status as a top 10 economic power and a leader in K-culture," and he added, "Reducing serious accidents is also about enhancing our national dignity."
The Minister also mentioned, "The Ministry of Employment and Labor, as well as all government departments, are fully committed to reducing serious accidents," stating that "All industrial safety inspectors are conducting surprise inspections as a special task force in pairs at a total of 26,000 business sites, including 7,000 construction sites."
He emphasized, "We are addressing risk factors immediately and, if they are not corrected, we are handling them by law without exception," and he added, "The fundamental structures of serious accidents and wage defaults are the same, which are persistent issues in the labor field."
On the same day, the Minister also discussed the sanctions being reviewed by the Ministry regarding business sites where serious accidents occurred. He stated, "Accidents caused by trying to save on expense and repeated accidents are absolutely intolerable," because "They are accidents that could have been sufficiently prevented."
Earlier, Vice Minister Kwon Chang-jun announced at the meeting the plans to initiate ▲ grounds for fines and penalty surcharges through amendments to the Industrial Safety and Health Act ▲ cancellation of construction registrations and restrictions on public bidding in the event of repeated fatal accidents ▲ expansion of the criteria for business suspensions limited to 'more than two deaths simultaneously' to 'multiple deaths annually.'
However, the Minister stated, "The government is discussing various economic sanctions when safety rules are violated or serious accidents occur," adding, "These measures should not be perceived simply as a tightening of corporations."
Minister Kim requested, "To prevent the recurrence of serious accidents, I urge two key points," stating, "We must not reverse the causes and consequences of accidents, and workers are not objects of safety management but the main subjects."