"Changing Staff Without Government Approval"
Won Hee-ryong, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is meeting with reporters at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport press room in the Government Sejong Complex on the 21st, answering questions related to the recent real estate market. On the 21st, Won Hee-ryong, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said about Korail, which has recently caused a series of fatal accidents, "The party responsible for the cause of the (accidents) is shifting the blame and engaging in irrelevant political struggles."
At a press briefing held at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport press room in the Government Sejong Complex on the same day, Minister Won said, "We are conducting intensive inspections, including the overall organizational awareness and leadership."
This year alone, there have been three railway derailment accidents?one each on the KTX, SRT, and Mugunghwa trains?and four Korail employees have lost their lives during work. Na Hee-seung, President of Korail, was booked in March this year on charges of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act following an accident, but industrial accident deaths have continued repeatedly since then.
Minister Won said, "There are distinctive findings revealed just a few days after the inspection began," adding, "First, to reduce working hours, the union and Korail changed the three-shift two-team system to a four-shift two-team system without government approval, thereby reducing the number of personnel deployed."
He also stated, "Upon reviewing work logs, a considerable number of strange cases were found where employees worked for 2 hours and 30 minutes and then took two consecutive days off," noting, "There are widespread significant problems related to work shifts and working hours."
He further mentioned, "In track work requiring skilled labor, less experienced workers were assigned, while more experienced personnel were assigned to more comfortable tasks, with many such cases detected."
Minister Won raised his voice, saying, "Simply increasing the number of personnel without correcting these issues only exposes more people to danger."
He also hinted at possible collusion between management and the union. He said, "Although budgets for automation of track inspections and related projects have been allocated, they have been continuously left unused, and the projects have not progressed for several years," adding, "There is no explicit record of union opposition, but the management claims 'consultation with the union' as a reason for the lack of progress."
Minister Won continued, "Until now, the union has invariably demanded the resignation of the president whenever an accident occurred, but unusually, it has remained silent despite multiple fatal accidents this time," and added, "We plan to thoroughly investigate whether the management is unilaterally yielding to the union's demands."
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