Wellkips to Incinerate and Dispose of 10,000 Masks Amid 'Unhygienic Packaging Controversy'

Company States "Will Strengthen Employee Training and Hygiene to Prevent Recurrence"

(Photo by Mungyeong-si)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Young-wook] Wellkips, embroiled in controversy due to unsanitary behavior by a part-time worker during the mask packaging process, has promised to prevent recurrence by discarding all potentially contaminated masks.

On the 6th, Mungyeong City in Gyeongbuk announced that it incinerated and disposed of about 10,000 products produced on the 4th at the P&TD Mungyeong factory, a Wellkips affiliate, at the Mungyeong Environmental Resource Circulation Center.

Earlier, the day before, Wellkips officially apologized for the unsanitary behavior of a part-time worker who was rubbing masks against his cheek while packaging at the factory.

The part-time worker who caused the controversy had been working at the factory since the 25th of last month. He reportedly explained his excessive behavior by saying, "It was because the mask was pretty."

Regarding the bare-hand packaging issue, Park Jong-han, CEO of Wellkips, said, "Automated packaging is optimal for cost reduction and hygiene, but it has limitations in filtering defective products," adding, "We conduct hand disinfection more than 10 times a day for thorough hygiene before packaging work." He also promised, "We will strengthen employee training and significantly increase management personnel to prevent such incidents from recurring," and "We will work harder to enhance hygiene so that consumers can use our products with confidence."

Wellkips earned the nickname "Good Mask" by not raising prices despite the mask shortage that continued since the end of January when COVID-19 began spreading in Korea. However, on the 4th, a part-time worker at the Mungyeong factory posted a photo on his SNS showing him touching an unpackaged mask to his face and packaging masks with bare hands, sparking a hygiene controversy.

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