Teachers' Union: "Industrial Safety Tasks Should Be Handled by External Experts"

Gwangju Office of Education Says "No Violation of Law...
Managers Are Personally Inspecting Schools"

There is growing backlash among school staff against the Gwangju Office of Education, which assigns industrial safety and health duties to teachers, vice principals, and administrative staff. Criticism has arisen as Gwangju is the only one among the 17 metropolitan and provincial education offices nationwide that does not outsource these tasks to an external professional agency. The Gwangju Office of Education maintains that "there is no legal obligation to outsource" under the law.

On the 9th, the Gwangju Teachers' Union stated, "Industrial accident prevention and response require expertise, yet the Gwangju Office of Education is assigning these duties to frontline teachers, vice principals, and administrative staff," and demanded, "The tasks should be immediately outsourced to a qualified professional agency."

Gwangju Office of Education building.

According to the union, 16 metropolitan and provincial education offices, including Seoul, Busan, and Incheon, have established 'industrial accident prevention teams' in accordance with the Industrial Safety and Health Act and are outsourcing specialized tasks such as hazard factor investigations and risk assessments to external agencies. The outsourcing budget ranges from 1 million to 5.5 million KRW depending on the region. In contrast, Gwangju is assigning these tasks to school staff without allocating a separate budget.

The teachers' union argued, "Cleaning, facility management, and cafeteria staff are workers protected under the Industrial Safety and Health Act, yet the actual accident prevention tasks are being handled by teachers and administrative staff who are not subject to the law," and added, "On the ground, there are conflicts and blame-shifting among those responsible."

In response, the Gwangju Office of Education countered, "There is no outsourcing provision for risk assessment tasks under the Industrial Safety and Health Act," and explained, "According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor's notice, workplaces are required to identify and improve hazardous and dangerous factors on their own, so there is no legal issue."

They further clarified, "Other education offices are outsourcing not the entirety of industrial safety, but only consulting and training areas," and added, "Safety and health managers affiliated with the Gwangju Office of Education directly visit about 100 schools annually according to the yearly plan, conducting facility inspections with school officials." The Gwangju Office of Education stated that it was notified there were no issues during last year's on-site inspection by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

The Gwangju Teachers' Union announced, "Since Gwangju is the last in the nation to introduce external outsourcing, this is actually an opportunity to create a highly complete model," and warned, "If the Office of Education does not respond, we will consider a signature campaign by school principals at all levels."