Vice Minister Ki Jae: "Implementation of Safety Rating System for Public Institutions... Actively Reflected in Management Evaluation"

2020 Public Institution Special Safety Inspection Meeting
37 Fatalities in 2019 Accidents... 28.8% Decrease from Previous Year

Koo Yoon-chul, 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is speaking at the 1st Private Investment Activation Promotion Council meeting of 2020 held on the 14th at the International Conference Hall of the Government Seoul Office Annex. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Koo Yoon-cheol, Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, said on the 17th, "We will actively consider evaluating the efforts of public institutions through the safety rating system to be introduced in the first half of this year and reflecting it in management evaluations."

On the same day, Vice Minister Koo held the 2020 Special Safety Inspection Meeting for Public Institutions at the Government Seoul Office and stated, "Public institutions must identify areas vulnerable to safety and prioritize expanding investments and increasing safety personnel."

Vice Minister Koo urged, "To establish a two-person team work environment for hazardous tasks, additional safety personnel should be secured, and investments and research and development (R&D) in protective equipment and supplies closely related to worker safety must be expanded."

He emphasized, "We plan to manage under the principle of strict punishment if safety issues, such as insufficient improvement of working conditions, continue to be pointed out on-site and if serious accidents occur."

He also requested public institution officials to "actively utilize safety management systems such as Safety Management Committees and Safety Labor Councils to listen to voices from the field." He added, "Please strive to root a safety culture that respects life and prioritizes safety at the workplace."

Furthermore, he said, "Next week marks the start of the Lunar New Year holiday, when a massive movement of people occurs," and requested, "Please actively take preventive measures against major winter accidents such as icy road accidents caused by 'black ice,' heavy snowfall, and hot water pipe bursts."

According to the 2019 fatal accident statistics (provisional) recently announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the number of fatalities from accidents at public institutions was 37, a 28.8% decrease compared to the previous year.

Last year, the number of industrial accident fatalities was 855, down 116 (11.9%) from the previous year. This is the largest decrease since the accident fatality statistics began in 1999. Accordingly, the number of accident fatalities fell below 900 for the first time, reaching the 800s.

Vice Minister Koo evaluated this as "the result of raising safety awareness across labor and management in public institutions and policy efforts to reduce industrial accidents."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.