Large Corporations' Work-Related Injury Rate Slightly Increased Last Year... Number of Zero-Accident Companies Decreased by Four

CEO Score, 2-Year Disaster Rate Survey of 171 Companies
Top is Agricultural Machinery Manufacturer 'Daedong'
Kumho Tire, SeAH Besteel, Jeju Air Follow
SKTI, Hyundai Glovis, etc. 2 Consecutive Years at 0%

Last year, the average lost-time injury rate (hereinafter referred to as the injury rate) among our large corporations slightly increased compared to the previous year. The number of zero-accident companies with no injuries also decreased by four compared to the previous year.

A construction site of an apartment in Gyeonggi-do./Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

According to CEO Score, a corporate data research institute, an investigation into the injury rates over the past two years of 171 companies that disclosed their injury rates among 210 of the top 500 domestic companies by revenue that published sustainability management reports revealed that the average injury rate of these companies last year was 1.30%, up 0.07 percentage points from 1.23% the previous year. The injury rate is calculated by dividing the number of injuries by annual working hours and then multiplying by one million hours. The number of zero-accident companies decreased from 44 in 2022 to 40 last year.

The company with the highest injury rate last year was Daedong, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery. Daedong's injury rate last year was 12.70%, down 2.00 percentage points from 14.70% the previous year, and it was the only company among the 117 surveyed to exceed 10% for two consecutive years. The second highest was Hankook Tire & Technology (10.20%), followed by SeAH Besteel (8.96%), Jeju Air (7.83%), Kumho Tire (7.71%), Youngpoong (7.00%), Dongwon F&B (6.66%), LS MnM (5.40%), SeAH Steel (5.38%), and Coway (4.82%).

Among the top 10 companies by revenue, last year's injury rates were all below the overall average except for Hyundai Motor Company (1.89%) and Hyundai Mobis (3.01%). By company, Samsung Electronics recorded 0.10%, Kia 1.24%, LG Electronics 0.73%, LG Chem 0.80%, Hanwha 0.20%, SK Trading International (hereinafter SKTI) 0%, GS Caltex 0.58%, and Korea Gas Corporation 0.10%.

Hyundai Mobis previously only counted cases reported to the government, but from last year, it calculated the injury rate based on cases with one or more days of work stoppage, strengthening the criteria, resulting in an increase of 2.29 percentage points compared to 0.72% in 2022.

Thirty companies recorded a 0% injury rate for two consecutive years, including SKTI, Hyundai Glovis, SK Telecom, LX International, Samsung E&A, POSCO E&C, SK Networks, DL E&C, and SGC Energy.

By industry, the steel sector had the highest average injury rate at 4.13%. This was followed by automotive and parts (2.43%), shipbuilding, machinery, and equipment (1.91%), food and beverage (1.90%), transportation (1.82%), consumer goods (1.25%), distribution (1.18%), petrochemicals (1.02%), energy (0.57%), IT and electronics (0.51%), pharmaceuticals (0.50%), services (0.47%), construction and building materials (0.46%), public enterprises (0.10%), trading companies (0.10%), telecommunications (0.10%), and holding companies (0%).