The First Ever Industrial Accident Hearing, Construction CEOs on Edge

Attendance at Environment and Labor Committee Meeting by Hyundai Construction and Others
Half of Last Year's Industrial Safety Law Violations Are in Construction
Outsourcing and Safety Management Criticisms Expected

POSCO Chairman Choi Jung-woo is attending the hearing on industrial accidents held by the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee at the National Assembly on the 22nd, responding to questions from lawmakers. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Choi Dae-yeol and Kim Hye-min] At the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee hearing held on the 22nd, business leaders emphasized the need for measures to address industrial accidents. The significance of the "first-ever industrial accident hearing" aimed at examining the current status and countermeasures of industrial accidents in the labor field was overshadowed by the high-handed attitude of some lawmakers.

Attending the hearing were Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of POSCO; Han Young-seok, CEO of Hyundai Heavy Industries; Jung Ho-young, CEO of LG Display; Shin Young-soo, Head of CJ Logistics' parcel delivery division; Park Chan-bok, CEO of Lotte Global Logistics; Joseph Nathan Notman, CEO of Coupang Fulfillment; Han Sung-hee, CEO of POSCO Engineering & Construction; Woo Moo-hyun, CEO of GS Engineering & Construction; and Lee Won-woo, CEO of Hyundai Engineering & Construction. Song Ok-joo, Chairperson of the Environment and Labor Committee, said, "This is an occasion to identify the core causes of industrial accidents together with major companies in the industrial field in line with the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act next year and to prepare groundbreaking measures to drastically reduce them."

Business leaders emphasized that they have increased investments in safety. Chairman Choi Jung-woo bowed his head, saying, "There are many aging facilities over 50 years old, and there was a lack of supervisory efforts by managers," while stressing that related investments have been continuously increased.

POSCO spent nearly 500 billion KRW in 2019 and last year, totaling 1.6817 trillion KRW over the past five years. This includes building or maintaining and repairing safety-related facilities such as fire-fighting and explosion-proof equipment, as well as supporting labor costs for safety personnel and protective safety equipment for partner companies. Hyundai Heavy Industries also decided to invest 456.9 billion KRW this year and next, which is more than 40% higher than the originally planned 323.3 billion KRW for safety-related budgets. POSCO Engineering & Construction plans to invest an additional 15 billion KRW annually in safety facilities, securing safety managers, and installing CCTV, in addition to the statutory safety management costs averaging 91.4 billion KRW over three years.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction strengthened its capabilities by increasing the number of regular safety managers by 55 compared to the previous year and will assign safety managers even to small-scale construction sites with budgets around 2 billion KRW. At Coupang, where worker deaths from overwork were frequent, discussions are underway to establish standards limiting the number of consecutive working days for regular (full-time and contract) and daily workers, and they announced plans to increase special health examinations for night daily workers beyond the current legal standards.