Minister of Employment summons nationwide agency heads, orders "Thorough investigation to prevent a 'Second Gwangju Accident'"

Meeting Convened with Heads of 48 Regional Employment and Labor Offices

"Strong Investigation if Serious Accidents Occur After Neglecting Risk Factors"

Minister of Employment and Labor, An Kyung-duk. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government gathered heads of 48 local employment and labor offices nationwide and instructed them to thoroughly investigate if companies neglect hazardous and dangerous factors, leading to serious industrial accidents like the Gwangju HDC Hyundai Development Company apartment collapse.

At 10 a.m. that day, Minister of Employment and Labor An Kyung-duk held the "National Heads Meeting in Preparation for the Enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act" and conveyed key points. With the law's enforcement just three days away, he conducted a final review of preparations and urged focus on key enforcement measures.

In particular, he directed a concentrated review of the three types of "toleration and neglect of hazardous and dangerous factors," which serve as grounds for punishing corporate management responsibility during investigations. These include ▲ habitual non-compliance with "safety rules" and "work plans," ▲ failure to establish and implement countermeasures for accidents leading to recurrence of similar accidents, and ▲ absence of procedures for listening to workers' opinions or toleration and neglect of such opinions. He announced plans to conduct stronger investigations into serious industrial accidents caused by these three reasons.

Minister An Kyung-duk emphasized, "To prevent large-scale accidents like the Gwangju HDC Hyundai apartment collapse from recurring, not only support for establishing safety and health management systems but also strictness in investigations is necessary. Since efforts by management to establish and implement safety and health management systems should be recognized, those responsible for serious accidents caused by toleration and neglect of hazardous and dangerous factors must be held accountable accordingly." He added, "From the 27th onward, during investigations of serious industrial accidents, please focus on these three types, conduct prompt investigations from the early stages of accidents, and actively communicate with related investigative agencies such as prosecutors and police. I ask you to build a hotline and hold regular working-level meetings with related agencies to ensure investigations proceed efficiently and to strengthen cooperation systems."

According to Minister An, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has established the Metropolitan Serious Accident Management Division in eight metropolitan local employment and labor offices to handle investigations under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. Jurisdiction has been organized so that the division can simultaneously investigate violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act during serious industrial accident investigations. All supervisors have received advanced investigative training and conducted mock investigations of serious industrial accidents in preparation for law enforcement. This year, the budget for industrial accident prevention projects was increased to 1.0921 trillion won, three times the 364.4 billion won in 2019. Minister An stressed, "Reducing serious accidents through the establishment of safety and health management systems is a historic mission that the Ministry of Employment and Labor must fulfill."

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