Ministry of Employment Launches Focused Safety Management Amid Consecutive Major Accidents in Shipbuilding Industry

On the 13th, a fire broke out during pipe welding work at a Daesun Shipbuilding factory in Saha-gu, Busan, resulting in the deaths of two subcontractor workers. Four days earlier, on the 9th, two subcontractor employees lost their lives when a structure fell during the process of flipping a 120-ton ship at Geumgang Heavy Industries shipyard in Goseong, Gyeongnam.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on the 20th that it will launch focused safety management activities, including meetings, training, and on-site inspections, primarily targeting small and medium-sized shipbuilders to prevent such serious accidents in the shipbuilding industry. The shipbuilding sites involve many hazardous work processes, numerous subcontractors participate, and a shortage of skilled workers contributes to an increased frequency of serious accidents. This year alone, a total of nine serious accidents (involving 13 people) have occurred, including falls, crushings, collisions, and explosions.

The Ministry will first hold a “Small and Medium Shipbuilder Employers Meeting” to prevent accidents in the Busan and Gyeongnam regions, where shipbuilders are concentrated (May 21), and in the Gwangju and Jeolla regions (May 23). Through this meeting, accident prevention activities at each shipbuilding workplace will be shared, and employers will be encouraged to identify and improve hazardous factors on site with strong commitment.

Additionally, from May 22 to 30, “Emergency Safety and Health Training” will be conducted for employers and safety and health officers of small and medium shipbuilders. The training will inform participants about recent serious accidents in the shipbuilding industry and key cases by accident type, and disseminate safety and health guidelines for accident prevention in shipbuilding. A Ministry official stated, “To ensure that language barriers faced by foreign workers do not become safety barriers, training materials translated into various languages will also be shared.”

Furthermore, to directly supervise and inspect safety management status at shipbuilding sites, the 10th On-Site Inspection Day will focus on the shipbuilding industry. On this day, frequent accident types such as falls, crushings, and collisions at shipbuilding sites will be intensively inspected. Separately from the Inspection Day, regional offices will also promote their own planned supervision activities by region.

Choi Tae-ho, Director of Industrial Accident Prevention and Supervision Policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, emphasized, “Creating a safe workplace is essential for the shipbuilding industry to maintain continuous competitiveness in the global market,” and urged, “All workers at shipbuilding sites should remain vigilant and devote their full efforts to safety activities.”