"Hyundai Motor Group Holds Forum to Prevent Major Accidents"

Discussion on Roles for Establishing Safe Workplaces in Small and Medium Enterprises

The Industrial Safety Win-Win Foundation (Chairman Ahn Kyung-duk) held a "Discussion Forum on Win-Win Safety Measures between Primary and Subcontractors for the Prevention of Serious Accidents" on the afternoon of the 6th at the National Assembly Members' Office Building Seminar Room 1, together with Park Dae-su, Chairman of the Labor Committee of the People Power Party.

The Industrial Safety Win-Win Foundation is Korea's first nonprofit foundation specializing in industrial safety as a public interest corporation. It was established last year by six Hyundai Motor Group companies, including Hyundai Motor and Kia, with the aim of building safe working environments and enhancing safety capabilities for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as part of win-win cooperation.

[Photo by Hyundai Motor Group]

People Power Party lawmakers Kwon Seong-dong, Song Eon-seok, Kim Hak-yong, Yoon Jae-ok, and Lee Dal-gon attended the forum. They discussed the government's role and the respective roles of primary and subcontracting companies in establishing safe workplaces for SMEs.

Kang Seong-gyu, Dean of the College of Health Sciences at Gachon University, who delivered the keynote speech, pointed out that compared to advanced countries overseas, Korea has a relatively high accident injury rate in workplaces with fewer than 10 employees. He emphasized that large companies' win-win cooperation projects should focus on nth-tier subcontractors with fewer than 10 employees.

In the comprehensive discussion, seven panelists including Geum Jeong-su, Director of the Industrial Accident Prevention Support Division at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Lee Dong-won, Director of the Workforce Policy Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Professor Lee Jun-won of Soongsil University, and lawyer Jung Yoo-chul of Yulchon LLC discussed cooperation measures and respective roles of the government, primary contractors, and subcontractors to reduce serious accidents in small businesses.

Lawmaker Park Dae-su stated, "With the Serious Accident Punishment Act scheduled to be expanded to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees starting January next year, it is urgent to prepare measures to prevent serious accidents in small businesses."

Chairman Ahn said, "Although the government has recently made many efforts such as expanding consulting budgets and support projects to prevent industrial accidents, considering the number of small-scale workplaces nationwide, the scope of beneficiaries is limited. Going forward, private-led win-win cooperation between primary and subcontractors will be a proper alternative for creating a sustainable safety ecosystem, and the foundation will concentrate all its capabilities with the best efforts to achieve this."