One in Three Construction and Manufacturing Sites Violates Industrial Safety Law... 611 Cases Booked

Ministry of Employment Announces Results of Intensive Crackdown on Fall and Crush Industrial Accident Deaths in September-October

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] One out of three construction and manufacturing workplaces, industries with frequent industrial accident fatalities, was found to have violated the Industrial Safety and Health Act. The government has started legal proceedings by indicting safety and health management officers at about 610 of the detected workplaces.

On the 14th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the results of the 'Intensive Crackdown Period to Reduce Industrial Accident Fatalities' conducted over two months from August 30 to the 31st of last month. Among 2,665 sites investigated, including construction sites with a contract amount under 5 billion KRW and manufacturing workplaces with fewer than 50 workers, selected as poor safety measure workplaces, 882 sites (33%) were found to have violated the Industrial Safety and Health Act. Among the detected workplaces, 611 sites (69%) had their safety and health management officers indicted, and legal actions such as investigations into specific violations have begun. Fines totaling about 900 million KRW and 63 orders to suspend facility use were also issued.

The Ministry is taking legal action against 478 out of 619 construction sites (77%) and 133 out of 263 manufacturing sites (51%). The proportion in construction is 26 percentage points higher than in manufacturing. Regarding this, the ministry explained, "Due to the characteristics of the construction industry, work delayed by the rainy season and heatwaves in summer was rushed in September, increasing overall work volume and consequently increasing cases of basic safety rule violations." In manufacturing, there were more cases of failing to properly observe the validity period of safety inspections for machines and equipment used regularly due to production schedules. Therefore, there were more cases of orders to suspend facility use than legal actions. In manufacturing, 61 cases (97% - including overhead cranes and industrial robots) and in construction, 2 cases (3% - construction lifts) were ordered to suspend use.

The number of fall and entrapment fatalities in small and medium construction and manufacturing industries from September to October was 29, a 48.2% decrease compared to 56 in the same period last year. However, among the 882 sites, 188 (21.3%) were subject to surprise re-inspections during the crackdown period, revealing that 13 sites (6.9%) violated safety obligations again.

Minister of Employment and Labor An Kyung-duk stated, "As a result of the intensive crackdown period, fatalities from falls and entrapments in small and medium construction and manufacturing industries slightly decreased, but still, three out of ten workplaces do not comply with basic safety obligations, so fatal accidents can increase at any time. Since the 882 workplaces that violated the Industrial Safety and Health Act during the crackdown period are likely to violate again, we plan to repeatedly conduct re-inspections and supervision until no violations occur and respond strictly."

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