Daegu Employment and Labor Cheong, Special Management of 'Fatal Accident Risk Areas'
The Daegu Regional Employment and Labor Office (Commissioner Kim Gyuseok) announced on the 8th that, due to a sharp increase in fatal accidents during work in the Pohang area this year, it has issued a ‘fatal accident risk alert’ for the Pohang area and will specially manage it as a ‘fatal accident crisis area’ from the 7th to the 30th.
As of the 5th, the number of fatal accident victims in the eastern Gyeongbuk region including Pohang, Gyeongju, and Uljin was 5 last year, but this year it increased to 15, accounting for half of the total fatal accident victims in Daegu and Gyeongbuk and a 300% increase compared to the previous year. Among them, Pohang saw a fourfold increase from 2 to 8.
This year, there have been 30 serious industrial accidents (fatalities) involving workers in industrial sites in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, and 13 serious industrial accidents (an increase of 4 cases (44%) from 9 cases last year) occurred at workplaces with 50 or more regular workers or construction sites with a construction amount of 5 billion KRW or more, to which the ‘Serious Accidents Punishment Act’ applies.
By type of accident, falls (8 cases), entrapment (8 cases), crushing (4 cases), being struck (3 cases), explosions (3 cases), fires (1 case), collapses (1 case), cuts (1 case), and electric shocks (1 case) were mostly accidents that could have been prevented by basic safety measures.
According to the ‘Serious Accidents Punishment Act,’ employers or management officials must take measures to establish and implement a safety and health management system, including necessary personnel and budget for accident prevention, considering the characteristics and scale of the business, to prevent safety and health hazards or risks to workers at workplaces they effectively control, operate, or manage. They must also inspect at least once every six months whether hazardous or risky factors at the workplace are identified and improved, and take necessary actions.
In particular, supervisors must faithfully perform their role in ensuring that workers proceed with tasks only when safety measures for each risk factor are in place at the site, and this must be evaluated and managed at least once every six months.
The Daegu Employment and Labor Office plans to manage whether mandatory inspections and other measures under relevant laws are properly conducted in the first half of the year, and will especially provide special management for the Pohang area where fatal accidents have surged.
In addition to construction (11 cases) and manufacturing (10 cases), fatal accidents in other industries (9 cases) increased by 5 cases compared to last year (4 cases), and fatal accidents related to local governments such as logging work continue to occur. Therefore, management plans for high-risk workplaces will be discussed through meetings of regional safety and health councils with local governments, education offices, and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.
Kim Gyuseok, Commissioner of the Daegu Regional Employment and Labor Office, emphasized, “To prevent fatal accidents, the role of supervisors at the site is crucial, such as confirming whether essential safety measures for hazardous work are implemented before work proceeds.”
Commissioner Kim added, “I urge management officials to take the lead in frequently inspecting compliance with laws at the site and taking necessary measures to improve the safety and health management status.”
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