POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo Visits Accident Site, "Deeply Apologize... Will Personally Oversee the Site"

POSCO Chairman Choi Jung-woo inspected the accident site on the 16th, shared the on-site risk factors with steel mill employees and partner company representatives, and urged improvements.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo apologized for the series of accidents that occurred at POSCO business sites. Chairman Choi also visited the sites to check whether safety measures were properly implemented and raised the rank of the safety responsibility officer to strengthen safety-first management.

According to POSCO on the 17th, Chairman Choi visited the raw material pier site at the Pohang Steelworks, where recent accidents occurred, the day before to inspect safety management and apologize to the bereaved families and the public. Chairman Choi said, "Regardless of the reasons, as the company's top executive, I sincerely bow my head and deeply apologize to the bereaved families," adding, "If there are additional requests based on honest dialogue with the bereaved families, we will reflect them as much as possible."

Despite Chairman Choi’s emphasis on safety following consecutive accidents, there was an incident earlier this month where a subcontractor worker was caught in equipment and died. Chairman Choi stated, "Although we declared safety management as the top priority and invested over 1 trillion won in safety facilities, as recent incidents show, I deeply feel there are many areas that need improvement," and added, "We will actively cooperate with investigations by related agencies and seek fundamental countermeasures from the ground up."

He continued, "As chairman, I will personally oversee the site until safety management is fully realized," and added, "I will directly preside over safety status inspection meetings and elevate the safety responsibility officer to president-level to practice management where safety is the highest priority."

On the same day, Chairman Choi toured the site with representatives of partner companies and listened to potential risk factors and difficulties that may arise during work. He mandated that POSCO employees also attend the pre-work potential hazard sharing activities (TBM, Tool Box Meeting) for all maintenance work by partner companies to thoroughly ensure safety measures.

He also checked whether the six urgent safety accident prevention measures, implemented since the 3rd of this month, were properly enforced on site. The six measures include prohibiting inspection and repair of operating equipment, notifying the right to stop work, and mandatory use of closed-circuit (CC) CCTV during work. Following last year’s distribution of about 1,300 smartwatches to workers at hazardous locations, an additional 1,400 units will be distributed. These devices detect physical abnormalities such as falls in real time and immediately send rescue signals to nearby colleagues. Traffic CCTV and speed enforcement cameras will also be increased.

Meanwhile, political pressure related to recent safety accidents has intensified. Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, urged the top management to take responsibility and implement industrial safety measures, and stated that the National Pension Service, the largest shareholder, should exercise the Stewardship Code (fiduciary duty principle).

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