13 Fatalities in Shipbuilding Major Accidents This Year... Ministry of Employment and Labor On-Site Inspection

Lee Jeong-sik, Minister of Employment and Labor (center), Park Sang-woo, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (left), and Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, are urging the enactment of an amendment to further postpone the application of the Serious Accident Punishment Act to companies with fewer than 50 employees at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 24th. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

This year, 13 people have died in 9 major accidents in the shipbuilding industry, and the government is launching a focused inspection campaign on the 'Field Inspection Day.'

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that on the 22nd, the 10th Field Inspection Day, it will conduct focused inspections on shipbuilding and high-risk manufacturing workplaces with 50 or more employees, targeting the '3 major accident types and 8 major risk factors.'

The Ministry has been operating Field Inspection Days on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of every month, focusing on falls at small and medium-sized construction sites and falls and entrapments in manufacturing. In shipbuilding, risk factors frequently arise due to process changes, and many tasks involve high-risk work such as welding and painting, often performed in confined spaces with mixed operations.

Earlier, on the 13th, a fire broke out during pipe welding work at Daesun Shipbuilding's Dadae Plant in Saha-gu, Busan, resulting in the deaths of two subcontractor workers. Four days prior, on the 9th, at Geumgang Heavy Industries shipyard in Goseong, Gyeongnam, two subcontractor employees died when a structure fell during the operation of flipping a 120-ton ship.

Accordingly, to prevent accidents such as entrapment and crushing, which frequently occur in manufacturing workplaces with 50 or more employees, including chemical, rubber products, and cement manufacturing, the Ministry plans to focus on hazardous and dangerous machinery and equipment and risky tasks.

The government is conducting intensive safety management activities such as meetings and training sessions centered on small and medium-sized shipbuilders to prevent major accidents in the shipbuilding industry. First, a 'Small and Medium Shipbuilder Business Owners Meeting' for accident prevention was held the day before in the Busan and Gyeongnam areas, where shipbuilders are concentrated, and another meeting is scheduled for the 23rd in the Gwangju and Jeolla regions. Through these meetings, accident prevention activities at each shipbuilding workplace will be shared, and business owners will be encouraged to identify and improve risk factors on site.

Additionally, from today until the 30th, 'Emergency Safety and Health Training' will be conducted for business owners and safety and health officers of small and medium-sized shipbuilders. This training aims to inform participants about the recent major accidents in shipbuilding and key cases by accident type, and to disseminate safety and health rules for accident prevention in shipbuilding. A Ministry of Employment and Labor official stated, "We will also share educational materials translated into various languages to ensure that language barriers for foreign workers do not become safety barriers." Furthermore, apart from the Field 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, urged, "In shipbuilding, where major accidents are increasing compared to last year, and in chemical, rubber, and cement manufacturing workplaces with 50 or more employees, please thoroughly manage safety by improving risk factors on site and ensuring compliance with core safety rules."