This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz RM Report site at 1:38 p.m. on Sept. 23, 2025.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said on 15th that it will impose a penalty surcharge of up to 5% of operating profit on companies where three or more fatal accidents occur per year. At the time, Minister Kim Young-hoon said, "When we investigated construction companies where three or more fatal accidents occurred in a year, there were four." However, the ministry did not disclose the companies' names.
◇ In the first half, six workers each died at Samjeong Enterprise and Hyundai Engineering
On 23rd, according to data from the labor ministry obtained by ChosunBiz through the office of Kang Deuk-gu of the Democratic Party of Korea on the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee, construction companies where three or more workers died between Jan. and Jun. were Samjeong Enterprise, Hyundai Engineering, POSCO E&C, and Hyundai E&C.
Among them, Samjeong Enterprise and Hyundai Engineering each had six workers die in accidents. In particular, at Samjeong Enterprise, six people died in a single fire at a construction site for the Banyan Tree Hotel in Busan in Feb.
Hyundai Engineering had worker fatalities at three business sites. In Feb., four people died in a collapse at the Sejong–Anseong Expressway construction site in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. In Mar., one person each also died at an apartment construction site in Pyeongtaek and at an officetel construction site in Asan, South Chungcheong Province.
◇ POSCO E&C and Hyundai E&C, three deaths each… Hyundai E&C has had three or more deaths for four straight years
In the first half, POSCO E&C lost three workers in three accidents. In Jan., one person each died in fall accidents at a new apartment site in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, and at a mixed-use residential-commercial construction site in Daegu in Apr. Also in Apr., one person died in a collapse at a Shinansan Line tunnel construction site.
During the same period, Hyundai E&C also had three workers die in three accidents. In Mar., one person died in a collapse at a redevelopment site in Jegi District 4, Dongdaemun, Seoul. In the same month, one person died in a concrete fall accident at an apartment construction site in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Then in Jun., there was an accident in which one person died after being buried by earth at a redevelopment site in Eunpyeong District, Seoul.
In particular, Hyundai E&C was the only construction company counted to have three or more fatal accidents every year for four consecutive years from 2022 to this year.
◇ Penalty surcharges of up to 5% of operating profit to be imposed, not retroactive
The government plans to impose a penalty surcharge of up to 5% of operating profit on companies where three or more fatal accidents occur per year going forward. Even companies with operating losses will face a minimum penalty surcharge of 3 billion won if they have three or more fatalities in a year. However, the government did not specify when the penalty surcharge would take effect. It will not be applied retroactively.
Accordingly, Samjeong Enterprise, Hyundai Engineering, POSCO E&C, and Hyundai E&C, where three or more worker fatalities occurred in the first half, will not be subject to the penalty surcharge for now.