It was tallied on the 7th that the Ministry of Employment and Labor received 126 reports of industrial accident risks from citizens during the month of Sep. Anyone could report signs of accident risk at business sites online under a pilot "paparazzi" program, resulting in roughly four reports a day over the month.
The ministry is reportedly reviewing a plan to pay rewards of up to 5 million won per case depending on the issue starting next year. However, some voiced concerns about side effects such as indiscriminate reporting caused by such a reward system.
◇ Anyone who witnesses a risk situation at business sites can report it… next year's reward budget: 11.1 billion won
Since Oct., the ministry has been fully operating the "Safe Workplace Reporting Center." The center accepts reports from citizens who witness situations that look dangerous or work performed without safety measures, suggesting the possibility of an industrial accident.
The main types of reports are ▲ insufficient safety measures ▲ signs of serious accidents ▲ concealment of industrial accidents. Specifically, situations without safety measures include not wearing protective gear such as safety helmets, or failing to install safety facilities such as safety rails and debris nets. Signs of serious accidents include ground subsidence (sinkholes) near business sites and deformation of facilities such as work platforms. Acts such as transporting the injured by calling a hospital instead of dialing 119 when an industrial accident occurs, or receiving treatment under national health insurance, may constitute concealment of an industrial accident.
Anyone can file a report. For example, a passerby could use a smartphone to film a worker not wearing a safety helmet at a building construction site and then report it. Workers at business sites can also report.
Earlier, the ministry conducted a pilot operation during the month of Sep. and received a total of 126 reports. When a report is filed, the local employment and labor office near the business site in question inspects the site. There have been no cases yet in which such inspections have led to legal action such as a pre-booking investigation, booking, an investigation, or referral to prosecutors.
To encourage reporting, the ministry plans to run a reward system starting next year. It also allocated an 11.1 billion won budget under the name "Industrial Safety Reporting Rewards." Rewards will be paid on a sliding scale depending on the case. It is known to be reviewing a plan to pay up to 5 million won for serious cases, such as when a business site ordered to halt work due to an industrial accident secretly resumes operations, or in cases of concealment of industrial accidents.
◇ Car-parazzi and phone-parazzi disappeared amid indiscriminate reports and bounty hunters
It is not the first time the government or local governments have introduced such a paparazzi system. Previously, similar systems were launched in various fields, including "car-parazzi" for filming vehicles that violate traffic laws, "phone-parazzi" for reporting illegal subsidies for mobile devices, and "pharm-parazzi," aimed at pharmacists who dispense prescription-only medicines without prescriptions at pharmacies.
Most of these paparazzi systems have since disappeared or seen their reward caps sharply reduced compared with their early days. Phone-parazzi, which offered rewards of up to 10 million won in 2013, was abolished in 2021. Car-parazzi was introduced in 2001 and abolished two years later in 2003. In the case of the pharm-parazzi system, which paid about 100,000 to 200,000 won per case, only internal whistleblowers can now receive reporting rewards, making it difficult for outsiders to collect rewards.
This was due to side effects from indiscriminate reporting. There were also instances where the workload of the relevant agencies receiving the reports became paralyzed. On top of that, professional bounty hunters seeking rewards ran rampant. These bounty hunters sometimes demanded large sums of compensation by citing legal violations. A system introduced to promote compliance with the law degenerated into a money-making scheme.
A construction industry official said, "When building a large apartment complex, thousands of workers come and go at the site every day," and noted, "Even if we stress compliance with safety rules to the workers, we are concerned that a report could be filed by highlighting only one or two cases where someone failed to comply."