Seoul City Public Construction Sites Conduct Alcohol Tests Twice Daily... Complete Ban on Drinking at Contracted Construction Sites

Seoul City Implements Strengthened Measures to Manage Drunk Workers for Industrial Accident Prevention at Public Construction Sites
Exclusion of Drunk Workers from Tasks and Immediate Send-Home Actions

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 30th that it will implement strengthened management measures for workers under the influence of alcohol at all construction sites commissioned by the city starting from the 1st of next month to prevent major industrial accidents at construction sites.

Workers under the influence of alcohol exhibit unsafe behaviors due to impaired balance and agility, and it is difficult for them to respond promptly in emergency situations at construction sites, making even minor risks highly likely to lead to fatal accidents. In fact, more than half of construction accident fatalities occur due to unsafe conditions at the site and unsafe behaviors of workers such as falls and collisions.

The strengthened management measures for alcohol consumption among workers at construction sites include measuring alcohol presence at least twice a day at each site, excluding workers with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.03% or higher from work to proactively eliminate safety risk factors.

Alcohol testing will be conducted twice: before and during work. Before work, all workers will be tested for alcohol presence, and during work, focused patrols will be conducted during vulnerable times (after lunch) to test suspected workers for alcohol. Construction site officials will provide mandatory alcohol prevention safety education to workers caught drinking before the next workday, keep records such as education logs related to alcohol prevention, and permanently ban workers caught drinking more than twice from entering the respective construction site.

Choi Jin-seok, Director of Safety at Seoul City, said, “To prevent ongoing safety accidents at construction sites even after the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, we will strictly manage basic safety rules such as eliminating alcohol consumption at construction sites and wearing safety gear, striving to establish a safety culture at construction sites.”

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