The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) on the 9th visited the HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan shipyard to inspect the status of safety and health management. The ministry pointed out that subcontracted workers died in successive entrapment accidents at the shipyard in July and urged management to undertake a full overhaul of the safety and health management system.
Ryu Hyun-cheol, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Office at the ministry, told CEO Geum Seok-ho and Chief Safety Officer (CSO) Yoon Hoon-hee that "the occurrence of successive serious accidents is a signal that corporations' safety and health management systems are not operating smoothly on the ground," and called for effective measures to prevent a recurrence.
Deputy Minister Ryu, at a subsequent meeting with the labor union, said, "Given the characteristics of shipbuilding, where working conditions change by process, workers' roles are important," and asked them to identify and report hazards on the ground.
At the HD Hyundai(267250) Heavy Industries Ulsan shipyard, on July 18, a subcontracted worker of Uzbek nationality died in an entrapment accident during work. Six days later, on July 24, at the Gunsan shipyard panel plant assembly line, a worker affiliated with a subcontractor died in another entrapment accident.
The ministry launched an intensive inspection tantamount to a special inspection of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries last month, and from the 1st of this month converted it into a special inspection to examine potential violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Deputy Minister Ryu said, "We will conduct the special inspection thoroughly, take action without leniency for legal violations, and continue guidance so that the measures to prevent recurrence prepared jointly by labor and management can be fully established in the field."