"Preventing Major Accidents"... Three Major Telecom Companies Jointly Establish Safety Facilities for High-Rise Base Stations

Fall Prevention Facilities Established at 24,000 Sites
Ministry of Employment and Labor: "Promoting Safety Cooperation Between Large and Small-Medium Enterprises"

The three mobile carriers announced on the 5th that they have agreed to jointly establish safety facilities at base stations to ensure the safety of telecommunications construction and tower site workers and to prevent accidents.

This agreement is a measure to prevent falls, which are the most frequent accidents during telecommunications work. To provide a safe working environment for workers, safety facilities will be jointly established for wireless station equipment installed by leasing rooftops or rooftop spaces of buildings for smooth mobile communication services.

Considering that repeaters installed on leased rooftop spaces are usually located at heights equivalent to the 5th to 15th floors of buildings, the possibility of serious accidents is very high in the event of a fall during work.

The three carriers?SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus?will jointly establish safety facilities at approximately 24,000 rooftop locations, with each company responsible for about 8,000 sites. They will install vertical ladders, fall prevention facilities such as backrests, safety footrests, and rings.

Since 2022, the three carriers have been autonomously operating a safety and health council involving safety and health executives and department heads to improve the safety and health standards of the domestic telecommunications industry. The council shares each company's safety and health cooperation plans and achievements and discusses collaborative measures.

Executives in charge of safety and health from the three major telecommunications companies are signing the agreement at the joint construction of safety facilities business agreement ceremony held on the 5th in the main conference room of SK Namsan Building. From the left, Jung Chang-kwon, Safety and Health Officer of SK Telecom; Choi Tae-ho, Director of Industrial Accident Prevention Policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor; Kim Geon-woo, CSEO of LG Uplus; Song Chang-seok, Head of Safety and Health at KT.

This joint establishment of safety facilities at base stations is expected to be an opportunity to raise the safety and health standards of the domestic telecommunications industry to the next level. They also plan to actively participate in the serious accident reduction roadmap promoted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to reduce the fatal accident rate to the OECD average level by 2026.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency also participated in the voluntary safety and health improvement agreement ceremony of the three carriers, promising continuous support to secure the safety of telecommunications work sites and to root a safety culture.

Choi Tae-ho, Director of Industrial Accident Prevention and Supervision Policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "This agreement by the three carriers to establish a safe working environment is a very meaningful effort to protect the lives and health of workers belonging to small and medium-sized partner companies," adding, "The government will also do its best to spread win-win safety between large and small and medium enterprises."