Repeated Industrial Accidents at 'Sampyo'... Rising Owner Responsibility Debate

Labor Sector "What Was Inevitable Has Come. Owner's Responsibility for Indifference to Frequent Industrial Accidents"

On the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, the 29th, a landslide occurred at the Sampyo Industrial stone quarry in Yangju-si, Gyeonggi Province, burying three workers. Authorities are conducting rescue operations.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] A fatal accident occurred at Sampyo Industry just three days after the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act. In particular, some labor circles have responded to the Sampyo Group, which has frequently experienced industrial accidents in recent years, by saying "what was bound to happen has happened."

On the 29th, according to industry and labor sources, three workers were buried at a stone quarry operated by Sampyo Industry in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. One of them was found dead, and the fire authorities are conducting rescue operations for the remaining two.

The Serious Accident Punishment Act allows for the punishment of management officials if one or more workers die at an industrial site. In workplaces with five or more regular employees, if a worker dies, the business owner or management official can be sentenced to imprisonment for more than one year or fined up to 1 billion KRW, and the corporation can be fined up to 5 billion KRW.

The Sampyo Group has been recognized by labor circles as a workplace urgently needing safety measures, having experienced four worker deaths in the past two years.

On September 27 last year, a subcontractor employee was killed after being hit by a dump truck at the Sampyo Remicon factory located in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. In March 2020, a partner company worker was killed after being hit by a reversing excavator, and in the same year, one person died in a conveyor entrapment accident in May, and another died in a fall accident in July.

Due to these accidents, Sampyo Cement received 471 corrective orders following a special labor inspection by the Labor Office in August last year and was fined 430 million KRW. Additionally, one safety officer at Sampyo Cement was booked.

In response, Jeong Do-won, chairman of the Sampyo Group, announced last year that he would invest 15 billion KRW to review recurrence prevention measures for safety management systems, including improvements to workplace safety facilities.

However, this time, as the 'first target of the Serious Accident Punishment Act,' punishment of the management officials of the company has become inevitable, and calls for responsibility for Chairman Jeong Do-won are also rising.

A Sampyo Group union official said, "Even after the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, Sampyo only emphasized more responsibility on the workers without reinforcing facilities, etc. This unfortunate incident happened because they forced operations on a holiday again. It's regrettable, but what was bound to happen has happened."

The official also said, "The workers' cries were just echoes. This time, the legal representative will be punished, but the owner, Chairman Jeong Do-won, is expected to avoid responsibility. The cause of frequent industrial accidents lies in the owner's irresponsible management," he sharply criticized.

In response, a Sampyo Group official stated, "We are currently investigating the exact circumstances of the accident," and added, "We will do our utmost to rescue the buried workers and ensure safety management at the site."

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