[Death in the Bread Factory]⑤Trays Frequently Jammed in Machines..."Veterans Told Us to Remove Them by Hand with Gloves"

A Glimpse into SPC Workers' Diaries
Cursing and Harsh Orders Are Routine Under the "Production First" Principle
"Veterans Were Not Afraid to Work While the Machines Were Running"

Editor's NoteWill eliminating night overtime work and reducing labor intensity, as President Lee Jaemyung has sternly ordered, solve everything? The core issue behind the recurring fatal entrapment accidents at SPC Group factories is that workers operating unmanaged machinery could not stop the machines when danger was detected. Asia Economy has reconstructed the sequence of three fatal accidents, examined the machinery, and identified the moments when the tragedies could have been prevented.

The vertical and oppressive working environment at the SPC bakery factories, combined with outdated machinery (Key Issue of the SPC Accident...No Chance to Stop) and inadequate safety devices (Common Threads of Death Surrounding Dangerous Machines), has led to repeated accidents. At the bakery factories, where stopping the machines was equated with failing to meet production targets, no worker dared to halt the equipment. The relentless pressure on workers to meet production quotas remains a risk factor that could lead to repeated accidents, even if the 12-hour two-shift system is abolished immediately. Based on the diary kept by Labor Attorney Gong Euijeong, who worked at the Shany Daegu factory from September to November last year before resigning, the testimony of her colleague Ms. Kim (36, female), and accounts from current workers, we have reconstructed the atmosphere on the ground.

What Happens in the Factory...A Worker's Diary

September 19, 2024

After the Chuseok holiday, I started my first shift. I arrived at 9 a.m., received my uniform, and attended safety and health training. During the safety session, we were told that the rate of industrial accidents in production factories is exceptionally high. The instructor explained that this was because of the large number of workers. As there was no health education instructor, that session was replaced by a video. Later, I heard that the health education instructor could not attend because they were dealing with an accident at the factory.

After lunch, I was immediately assigned to work. I entered the workshop without knowing what I would be doing. My task was to place dough from the machine onto baking trays. With no prior explanation, I simply followed my supervisor's unfriendly instructions and irritable scolding, barely keeping up.

September 30, 2024

Hat color distinguishes your status. New employees with less than six months of experience wear yellow hats, regular employees wear white, team leaders wear green, line leaders wear blue, and the quality team wears purple.

Regular employees do not interfere with each other's work, but they harshly scold those in yellow hats. Maybe it's because the yellow hats are new and unfamiliar, but whenever something goes wrong or a problem arises, all the anger is directed at the yellow hats. As contract workers, those in yellow hats must simply endure it to become regular employees.

Today was no different. My colleague A struggled with a task she was doing for the first time, and the senior worker berated her and told her to go elsewhere. If you make a good first impression, mistakes are overlooked, but if you appear clumsy at first, you're labeled as "incompetent" and severely reprimanded for even minor errors.

October 2, 2024

Today is my day off. I was told to get a health checkup to join the night shift. I didn't want to work nights, but unless you are pregnant or have special circumstances, everyone is assigned. The checkup was over in a flash. The consultation with the doctor for night work lasted less than two minutes.

October 10, 2024

I was assigned to pack butter rolls with my supervisor. She told me to relax and just inspect the bread until lunch. After sending off the last bread and approaching her, I saw there was still unwrapped bread and items to be repackaged piled up. The supervisor, who had told me to take it easy, cursed at me, saying, "How could you not come over even once when you knew this would happen, damn it." As a yellow hat, I just have to endure and adapt.

October 13, 2024

Night shift. I helped clean the shaping section. Even if the work isn't physically demanding at night, my body still aches. After midnight, my ankles go numb and my whole body aches. I feel heavy and unfocused.

October 26, 2024

During roll call, the team leader announced that colleague A was absent due to illness and warned that work would be tough today because we were short-staffed. As a result, everyone attributed all the day's difficulties to "A's absence." Is it really the fault of one sick new employee? (Later, A told me that when she came in the next day, the team leader called her over and said others had suffered because she was absent.)

October 28, 2024

It was a tough day. The work in the packaging section went like this: I stood at the front of the conveyor belt packing bread. Any bread I couldn't pack moved down the belt to two others behind me. If I wasn't fast enough, their workload increased and the unwrapped bread piled up.

When working under pressure, my whole body tenses up and aches. My toes especially tense up, and seniors say that when you finally shed your yellow hat, your toes turn black. My left hand is stained yellow from handling so many wrappers, and the smell of ink is overwhelming. My skin gets scraped by soboru bread. Now I understand why even those with one, three, or ten years of experience say they never fully adapt to the job.

November 8, 2024

There was an accident in the shaping section yesterday. Someone injured their hand on a machine while packing. Some say it required stitches, but no one knows exactly how severe it was (some say the accident happened because everyone was nervous with the CEO present for a new product launch). There is a culture of keeping even accidents on adjacent lines quiet. Because of this, I had to help out on the other line.

I was also supposed to help, but the senior excused me. When I asked why, she said she was protecting me because I shouldn't get hurt. I was very grateful, but it saddened me to realize that the seniors are always aware that accidents can happen at any time.

Ms. Kim, who joined the factory at the same time as Labor Attorney Gong, testified that she experienced all the incidents described in the diary. Kim made hamburger buns for SPC franchise stores in the shaping section. She checked for defects and foreign substances in dough placed on trays for six or twelve buns. Each tray stayed in front of her for about five seconds, during which she had to inspect all the buns. As the trays moved quickly, Kim said that after a while, her vision blurred and she began to feel as if she had trypophobia.

She also experienced dangerous moments during work. Empty trays returning from the oven to be refilled often got stuck in the machine. When you heard a "clunk" and the tray failed to move, you knew there was a problem. The following is a video Kim filmed.

Normally, you should call the maintenance team to remove the jammed tray. However, colleagues said that the maintenance team is short-staffed and it is unpredictable when they will arrive. Senior workers teach that this level of problem does not warrant calling maintenance; instead, you should put on gloves and remove the hot tray from the oven yourself. Even though the floor and machines are slippery with oil used to keep bread from sticking, you have to crouch between the machines to get the tray out. Seniors who at least show you where to remove the tray are considered kind. Most of the time, you are expected to figure it out on your own. If you can't keep up, you are watched and eventually scolded from behind.

Veteran workers are not afraid to work while the machines are running. Kim was later reassigned to the packaging section, where she cut bags. The bags are made by a guillotine-like blade cutting the plastic from above. Since the type of packaging changes depending on the bread, you have to switch to a different plastic wrapper after each product run.

The senior worker on the line said, "Just be careful of the blade," and would change the packaging by putting her hands under the falling blade. She said that as long as you time your hands to go in and out with the blade's rhythm, it's fine. When Kim hesitated to change the packaging, the senior immediately said, "You're too slow, let me do it," and put her own hands into the machine.

After work, Labor Attorney Gong, Kim, and other new hires would share photos of their bruised arms and legs in a group chat. They said that when you're working and running around, you don't even notice the bruises until later.

Veterans Who Became Machines Themselves

"While working, you constantly hear 'faster, faster.' You hear it from colleagues, too. If I hesitate or can't keep up, it feels like I'm causing trouble for others," said Labor Attorney Gong.

SPC produces millions of pieces of bread every day. At the "largest SPC factory in Korea" in Pyeongtaek alone, which SPC advertises, 4.61 million pieces are produced daily. Although there are differences between factories, it is generally possible to calculate that thousands of pieces come off a single line every ten minutes. The processes of mixing, pouring, transferring, baking, cooling, and packaging are all interconnected. If one part stops, the entire process is disrupted. Any defective product must be discarded.

Because of this, if the daily production target increases by tens of thousands, it causes a crisis. Managers check whether each line's production rate is falling behind others and instruct workers to speed up if necessary. Therefore, "I will stop the machine for safety" is not an acceptable excuse here. Not only Labor Attorney Gong, but also other former and current workers, agreed: "Even team leaders with years of experience find it difficult to stop the line." Only supervisors or higher-ups who come and see the problem themselves will stop the machine; anyone below them dares not touch the stop button. Over time, workers adapt themselves to the "production first" principle. Eventually, they find themselves working faster and faster, and if they can't keep up, they are seen as incompetent and left behind.

Attorney Oh Bitnara, who represented the family in a mixer entrapment fatality lawsuit, pointed out that this corporate pressure, and the internalized culture it creates, pushes workers toward accidents. Oh said, "Unless a company considers it more costly for a person to be injured than for a factory running on a conveyor to stop and cause massive losses, it is hard to imagine so many repeated accidents happening at one company."

SPC responded to Labor Attorney Gong's diary about her experiences in the bakery factory by saying, "The content has not been fact-checked." Regarding the system in which workers cannot stop the machines themselves-that is, the lack of the right to suspend work-they stated, "We will prepare and actively promote effective measures to ensure that the right to suspend work can be exercised in the field."

For more details on SPC's machinery entrapment accidents, visit Asia Economy's Visual News.
https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/visual-news/article/2025091015165318961