Seoul City Conducts 'On-site Construction Safety Training' for Elderly and Foreign Workers

To prevent safety accidents among domestic and foreign workers who face difficulties due to physical burdens from aging and language communication issues, Seoul City has launched a visiting safety education program.

Safety training for foreign workers conducted in the first half of 2023 in May. [Photo provided by Seoul City]

Seoul City announced that starting from the 16th, it plans to conduct visiting construction site safety education in the second half of the year at construction sites across Seoul.

As the number of elderly workers and the proportion of foreign workers experiencing language communication problems increase among workers at construction sites, the need for customized safety education for these elderly and foreign workers is growing.

Recently, the aging trend has become prominent, with construction workers aged 50 and above accounting for 61.8% at construction sites. The proportion of foreign workers also increased from 14.3% last year to 15.2% this year. During this period, the number of foreign workers rose by 7.8% (8,371 people), from 106,680 to 115,051.

This education will focus on ▲ lectures on safety work rules by case ▲ VR virtual experiences showing types of safety accidents specific to sites such as architecture and civil engineering.

Additionally, to prevent safety accidents caused by the aging of construction site workers, customized counseling will be provided to alleviate unsafe behaviors caused by physical burdens and stress among elderly workers, along with one-on-one tailored counseling to listen to the difficulties and challenges foreign workers face in adapting to life in Korea.

The city aims to collaborate with the ‘Construction Workers’ Mutual Aid Association’ and the ‘Korea Foreign Workers Support Center’ to jointly address and resolve workers’ grievances that may affect safety accidents at construction sites, striving to create a safe working environment.

Alongside this, leaflets containing essential information for elderly and foreign workers who have limited access to construction information will be produced and distributed in versions for domestic and foreign workers, and continuous guidance and inspections of worker rest facilities will be conducted to improve working conditions.

Kim Seong-bo, head of Seoul City’s Urban Infrastructure Headquarters, said, “We will prevent safety accidents through customized counseling suitable for elderly workers and provide counseling and education to prevent safety accidents that may occur due to insufficient understanding of the working environment and situations caused by language and cultural differences among foreign workers. We will minimize disaster occurrences by creating a better working environment,” adding, “We will establish a sound and safe construction culture to build a safe city Seoul.”

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