Kim Young-hoon, Minister of Employment: "Companies Ignoring Worker Safety and Life Will Be Strictly Dealt with According to the Law"

[Financial News] Kim Young-hoon, Minister of Employment and Labor, announced on the 23rd that the government will officially launch the on-site focused industrial accident prevention activity 'Safe Workplace Project'.
 Minister Kim conveyed this during the nationwide directors' meeting under the Ministry of Employment and Labor held that day, urging that "companies that disregard worker safety and life should be strictly dealt with according to the law, without exceptions and leniency," to spread awareness about industrial accidents.
 The Ministry of Employment and Labor explained that the 48 local labor office directors, the chairman of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, and the chairman of the Korea Industrial Safety Association, who attended the meeting, also agreed to support the 'Safe Workplace Project'.
 'Safe Workplace Project' includes △designation of dedicated inspectors for each of the 26,000 high-risk workplaces (workplaces with weak safety management) nationwide △selection of 12 key safety rules in the fields of five major industrial accidents (falls, entrapment, collisions, fires and explosions, suffocation) and heatwaves △unannounced inspections based on detection and corrective actions.
 In response to Minister Kim's orders, industrial safety inspectors and employees of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency will conduct extensive on-site inspections and supervision. Minister Kim himself plans to directly inspect the sites at least once a week.
 Minister Kim stated, "Creating a safe workplace is a natural duty of the state," and ordered, "Industrial safety inspectors must show a distinctly different approach than in the past."
 He added, "We will also establish a direct communication system with industrial safety inspectors to find solutions for a safe workplace on-site, and ensure that changes in worker safety issues can be felt on-site by closely collaborating with related departments to devise more fundamental measures."


jhyuk@fnnews.com Jun-hyuk Kim, Reporter