"85% of Tower Crane Construction Sites Normalized... Institutional Improvements Needed"

Although most construction site work has been normalized following the government's special inspection of the tower crane union's work stoppages, there are calls for continuous inspections and system improvements.

A tower crane standing at an apartment construction site in Seoul city / Photo by Yonhap News

The Korea Construction Industry Research Institute announced in its report titled "Policy Trends and Inspections for Normalizing Tower Cranes at Construction Sites," released on the 9th, that 492 out of 574 sites nationwide (85.7%) have resumed normal operations due to special inspections by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and other government bodies.

Sites where work normalization reached about 95% accounted for 42 locations (7.3%), and those at about 85% were 25 locations (4.4%). Sites with less than 75% normalization were only 15 locations (2.6%).

This was similar to the monitoring results based on the 52-hour workweek standard conducted by the Korea Construction Association targeting the top 10 construction companies. Among 312 sites reporting disruptions to normal work, 42 sites (13.5%) were recorded in the survey on the 28th of last month, decreasing to 31 sites (9.3%) in early this month.

Choi Seok-in, Director of Planning and Management at the Korea Construction Industry Research Institute, said, "Illegal activities by construction unions not only adversely affect project costs and schedules at the respective sites but can also cause setbacks in industrial development due to decreased productivity and harm the public." He added, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and other government agencies must not stop here but continue efforts to normalize construction sites through monitoring and institutional improvements."

He further stated, "Improvement measures such as introducing special judicial police authority to eradicate illegal activities on-site or expanding the pool of tower crane operators should be prepared."

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