Distribution of Cooling Sleeves and Ice Neck Coolers to Over 600 Field Workers, Shade-Free Anyangcheon Receives Blackout Umbrellas... Early Morning Labor Market Shelter for Construction Day Laborers Operated Near Exit 2 of Sinjeongnegeori Station in July-August
Yangcheon-gu (District Mayor Lee Gi-jae) announced that it has established a ‘Heat Illness Prevention Plan for Field Workers in Preparation for Heatwaves,’ which includes providing cooling gear to about 600 field workers, to prevent serious industrial accidents such as heat-related illnesses during the summer heatwave.
Field workers refer to employees responsible for maintenance and management of facilities such as government buildings, roads, parks and green spaces, and streets, as well as cooking facilities in public administration. Currently, about 600 such workers are employed in the district. The district will provide them with ‘cooling gear’ consisting of cool sleeves for hands and arms and ice neck coolers.
In particular, the district proactively provided blackout umbrellas for field workers in the green space sector working at Anyangcheon. Due to the nature of the site, Anyangcheon lacks shade, making it difficult for field workers to rest during the summer. Therefore, the district distributed blackout umbrellas, which reduce the perceived temperature by about 3 to 7°C and have a strong UV-blocking effect, allowing workers to use them as shade shelters.
Additionally, the district plans to conduct regular safety and health education (heat illness prevention) for the departments managing field workers and thoroughly check compliance with summer safety rules through on-site inspections of rest areas.
Furthermore, during the peak heatwave months of July and August, the district will intensively operate a ‘Dawn Labor Market Shelter’ (hereafter ‘shelter’) near Exit 2 of Sinjeongnegeori Station for construction day laborers. The shelter will operate from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., Monday through Saturday, providing convenience facilities such as tents, cold water to relieve thirst, and heatwave prevention supplies. However, it will not operate on Sundays and public holidays. To create a comfortable environment, the district plans to assign two temporary workers to manage the shelter on-site.
Last summer, the district also operated the dawn labor market shelter, which was highly satisfactory to day laborers, with an average of 60 to 70 users per day and a total of about 3,100 users. The district will actively reflect suggestions gathered from construction day laborers to improve the shelter’s operation for their convenience.
Lee Gi-jae, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, said, “As this summer is expected to bring record-breaking heatwaves due to abnormal weather, we will thoroughly implement support for heatwave preparedness supplies and operation of the dawn labor market shelter to prevent heat-related illnesses without any setbacks.”
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