[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] It has been claimed that Gwangju Metropolitan City is responding complacently to industrial accident prevention and the promotion of worker safety and health through passive administration.
According to the Gwangju Metropolitan Council on the 28th, Assemblywoman Chae Eunji pointed out in a 5-minute speech at the plenary session that “Gwangju City only establishes plans to promote industrial accident prevention, but when accidents occur, the actual work remains stuck in a ping-pong administration where responsibilities are passed back and forth.”
She added, “With this attitude, it is impossible to create a safe workplace that is good to work in and a safe Gwangju.”
She also emphasized, “In the past five years, a total of 10,675 industrial accidents have occurred in Gwangju City, including 97 deaths and 10,058 injuries, highlighting that Gwangju’s role in preventing industrial accidents has become more important than ever.”
She mentioned the response to the death of a young worker at a Samsung Electronics subcontractor in the Pyeongdong Industrial Complex on the 7th.
Assemblywoman Chae stated, “All related departments of Gwangju City neither visited the site nor even attempted to properly grasp the accident situation. The ‘Labor Policy Officer’ was not fully aware of the accident situation itself, and the ‘Safety Policy Officer’ responded passively, saying it was the Labor Policy Officer’s responsibility.”
She also criticized, “We received an absurd response from Gwangju City that ‘industrial accident response is a private sector matter and should be handled by the Ministry of Labor.’ Even though the accident occurred within Gwangju City and involved Gwangju citizens, if industrial accident occurrences are passed off as a private sector issue, it raises doubts about why the Labor Policy Officer and Safety Policy Officer even exist.”
She added, “The budget allocated for industrial accident prevention in Gwangju City’s 2023 main budget is only 370 million KRW, raising doubts about whether the city’s goal to reduce industrial accident deaths by 50% is achievable. The establishment of an ‘Industrial Safety and Health Center,’ which Gwangju City had promoted as a leading measure for safety and health, would be a good alternative.”
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