"Thousands of Loaves in 10 Minutes: As Work Hours Are Cut, Even Bathroom Breaks Are Taken in Shifts" [Death in the Bread Factory] ⑥

Work Hours Reformed After President’s Stern Order
Will SPC Accidents Finally Come to an End?

Editor's NoteWill everything be resolved if, as President Lee Jaemyung has ordered, night overtime is eliminated and work intensity is reduced? The core issue in the repeated fatal entrapment accidents at SPC Group factories is that workers operating unmanaged machines could not stop the equipment when they sensed danger. Asia Economy has reconstructed the circumstances of three fatal accidents and examined the moments when the incidents could have been prevented.

 

On the 27th of last month, when SPC Group announced a reform plan to reduce the existing 11-hour night shifts by 3 hours, a line of red commuter buses carrying employees arriving for their 7 a.m. shift entered the SPC Samlip Siwha Factory in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. Not long after, employees who had worked a full 12-hour shift from 7 p.m. the previous day began to leave. Around this time, the media had begun to report on SPC's new work system reform. When a reporter asked, "How is the internal atmosphere with the upcoming work system reform?" everyone either shook their heads or stared into space. "They're doing something pointless. Are you going to upload this on YouTube or something?" One employee even followed the reporter to the end, questioning them in this way.

On the 27th, workers are moving to the workplace at the SPC Samlip Siwha Factory in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

President Lee Jaemyung visited the SPC Samlip Siwha Factory, where a worker died from a machine entrapment accident, and called for improvements, citing issues with the night work system and work intensity. Despite previous worker deaths, SPC had not reformed its work system, but now the company has announced measures to limit night shifts for production workers to under 8 hours and increase night shift allowances. However, the atmosphere inside the SPC bakery factories is unusual. Rather than saying the risks have disappeared, workers report that their jobs have become even more difficult. With the factory changed by the accident, is it really safe to continue like this?

Is Only the Time Reduced? Machines Keep Running Despite Shift Changes

According to the reform plan, which began a trial run on the 1st of this month, SPC Group switched from a two-shift, two-team system to a three-shift, three-team system (at SPC Samlip and Shani) to match production volume with reduced night work hours. The company also introduced a connecting shift (at SPL and BR Korea) to bridge the day and night teams. Discussions on how to compensate for reduced wages are determined by labor-management agreements at each subsidiary.

Labor-management agreement on the revision of the work system at SPL, a subsidiary of SPC Group, obtained by Asia Economy.

First, SPL decided to raise the night shift allowance rate to a maximum of 79%. Considering that the legal night work allowance rate is 50%, this is a significant increase. Temporary workers and public service positions will also receive a temporary allowance of 40,000 won. Some have described these changes as a "drastic decision compared to industry peers." However, the attached conditions tell a different story. According to the labor-management agreement on the SPL shift reform obtained by Asia Economy, the 79% night shift allowance rate will only be applied until the end of the 2026 wage and collective bargaining agreement. The agreement states, "The wage payment according to the shift reform will be applied temporarily until the end of the wage and collective bargaining agreement." There is also a condition that the night shift allowance rate of 0.79 times will revert to 0.5 times.

Although it is possible to maintain or even increase the 79% night shift allowance rate through future negotiations, the internal sentiment is that "this is unlikely to happen." Lim Jongrin, head of the Paris Baguette branch of the Korean Federation of Chemical and Textile Workers' Unions, said, "During the 2017 wage negotiations, management also proposed matching wages with headquarters within three years, but nothing came of it. There is no guarantee it will be different this time." The management responded, "The clause 'until the end of the wage and collective bargaining agreement' in the labor-management agreement means that the current terms may change as the union and management discuss the wage system for the following year during negotiations. It does not mean that extra allowances will be unilaterally eliminated or reduced."

Labor-management agreement on the revision of the work system of BR Korea, an SPC Group affiliate, obtained by Asia Economy. The document on the left is the agreement dated August 19, and the one on the right is the newly signed agreement by labor and management after withdrawing the previous one.

Some subsidiaries only reached new agreements after SPC announced its work system reform. BR Korea, for example, announced on the 19th of last month that it would increase the base salary by 2% to match the work system reform, but then withdrew this and, as of the 1st of this month, announced a new agreement that included the introduction of a production allowance and an additional night allowance of 0.15 times. Unlike SPL, there was no clause stipulating that the additional allowances would be maintained only until the end of the wage and collective bargaining agreement.

At SPC Samlip, the shift system changed from two-shift, two-team to three-shift, three-team, and the work schedule changed from 52 hours over five days a week to 48 hours over six days a week. Among factory workers, there was anxiety from the beginning of the night work reduction plan that "if the hours are reduced, won't the number of workdays just increase?"

On the 27th, workers are arriving at the SPC Samlip Siwha Factory in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

Because the reformed work system is focused solely on reducing night work hours, there have been a number of side effects, including increased production pressure. Mr. C, a current employee with 10 years of experience at one of the SPC factories that introduced the connecting shift, said, "Since we haven't yet filled all the connecting shift positions, we're stopping the machines for three hours. As work hours have been reduced, work has become busier to meet production targets. No one can leave the line, so now we take turns, one by one, for meals and bathroom breaks. It's a chaotic situation." He added, "Thousands of loaves of bread come off one line every 10 minutes. If you reduce work hours by three hours, you would have to drastically reduce production. If production is not reduced, chaos is inevitable."

SPC explained, "These measures were implemented to prevent reduced concentration and accident risks during vulnerable time periods. The connecting shift hours were determined in consultation with the labor union to most effectively connect operations while also benefiting employees in terms of night shift allowances and commuting conditions." The company added, "Production volumes and product types are adjusted to appropriate levels based on demand forecasts and process efficiency. We cannot disclose specific production reduction targets."

The Overlooked Duality of Night Work by the President

The previous two-shift, two-team system in SPC bakery factories worked as follows: the day team worked from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and then the night team took over from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. Overtime was allowed up to three hours, and most employees worked all three hours every day. In effect, this was a "12-hour alternating shift" from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next day.

SPC has various allowance systems, such as extra pay and overtime pay, to compensate for the extended hours. The total wage consists of the base salary plus these various allowances. For SPC factory workers, who relied heavily on special allowances for night or holiday work, night shifts were an unavoidable choice for their livelihood. This is why workers are concerned that reducing night work will reduce their income.

Asia Economy calculated the wage changes resulting from reduced night work based on Mr. C's monthly salary. Mr. C's base salary is 2.8 million won. Dividing this by his working hours, the base hourly wage is about 13,000 won. SPC pays 1.5 times the base hourly wage for overtime beyond regular work hours. Night work pays an hourly wage of 18,000 won, higher than the day shift. Factoring this in, even with some variation by years of service, working just three extra hours per day can earn a worker at least 1 million won per month from overtime and night work. For new employees whose base salary is close to the minimum wage, whether day or night, overtime is unavoidable.

Mr. C explained, "Since the base salary for factory workers isn't high, you can't make ends meet unless you volunteer for night or overtime work. People even compete to take weekend special shifts just to earn a little more money."

Are Opinions Properly Reflected? Deep-Rooted Distrust

Unremoved banners and appeals in front of the SPC Group headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jeon Jinyoung

Why have workers come to distrust the company so deeply? The roots of this distrust go back to 2022. After a worker was sucked into a sauce mixer and killed at the SPL bakery factory in Pyeongtaek in 2022, Chairman Hur Youngin of SPC promised to invest 100 billion won to strengthen safety. However, even after this announcement, two more fatal machine entrapment accidents occurred in 2023 and this year. The 100 billion won pledged for safety enhancements appears to have had little effect.

Even when lawmakers asked, "Where exactly was the 100 billion won spent?" SPC failed to provide a clear answer. Lee Eunju, former Justice Party lawmaker who dealt with SPC fatal accidents as a member of the 21st National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee, recalled, "At the time, I asked SPC to explain how the 100 billion won was spent, but never received the documents. They submitted an accident recurrence prevention report to the committee, but it was so insincere that I even reprimanded the company representative in an official setting."

Seven safety rules assigned to the SPC Shani Factory just before the fatal accident involving a ball lift entrapment in August 2023. Kwon Youngguk, leader of the Justice Party, who was in charge of reviewing them at the time, pointed out that "the safety education content is uniformly the same and remains limited to abstract slogan chanting." Kwon Youngguk, leader of the Justice Party.

It was only after the third accident in May of this year that SPC submitted a report to the National Assembly titled "Safety Management Innovation Plan." In this report, SPC stated that 96.9 billion won out of the 100 billion won was invested in industrial safety. The company specified that 17.26 billion won was spent on strengthening equipment stability, such as replacing old machinery, and 25.43 billion won on providing protective gear and preventing entrapment accidents.

However, many factory workers say they have not felt any real changes. While stickers warning "Watch Your Hands" and "Beware of Entrapment" were attached to machines and banners listing safety rules were hung inside factories, it was rare for old equipment to be completely replaced.

There are also criticisms that countermeasures are being implemented in a piecemeal fashion. After the third fatal machine entrapment accident (see related article: SPC Accident Log... Records of Three Victims), SPC announced it would invest 5 billion won to replace the spiral conveyor at the Samlip factory. The company overlooked the fact that the same type of machine was being used not only at SPC Samlip, where the accident occurred, but also at other subsidiaries such as BR Korea, which produces Dunkin' Donuts (see related article: The Deadly Commonality of Dangerous Machines). After data from a lawmaker's office revealed that there were a total of 47 spiral cooling conveyors of the same type in all SPC factories, SPC quickly began inspections.

Suh Yongyun, professor of Industrial Systems Engineering at Dongguk University who researches industrial accident prevention, said, "Fatal industrial accidents do not always occur on the same machine. It's like playing whack-a-mole; when an accident happens and countermeasures are set up for that machine, another accident occurs elsewhere. That's why we say a comprehensive safety management system is needed, and I question whether the 100 billion won was truly used efficiently."

An SPC representative stated, "We have invested 96.9 billion won by May of this year to strengthen safety systems, but it is regrettable that another accident has occurred. We recognize the limitations of the existing approach and are re-examining the entire production system from scratch. We plan to quickly implement further work system reforms and build a new smart safety factory to enhance safety."

Asia Economy has used pseudonyms for informants who did not wish to reveal their real names in order to protect their identities.

For more details on SPC's machine entrapment accidents, visit Asia Economy's Visual News.

https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/visual-news/article/2025091015165318961