Ministry of Employment and Labor Busan Office and Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency Busan Headquarters, Urgent Inspections to Prevent Fatal Accidents in Small and Medium-sized Workplaces

The Busan Regional Office of the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Busan Regional Headquarters of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (Director Gong Heung-du) will devote all organizational capabilities to preventing accidents in small and medium-sized workplaces from the 5th of this month until the 7th of next month.

They will conduct urgent on-site patrol inspections targeting high-risk workplaces for fatal accidents, such as recycling processing industries where fatal accidents have recently been frequent, and workplaces with cranes and forklifts owned by fewer than 50 employees. These inspections focus on workplaces vulnerable to serious accidents.

This comes as fatal accidents have been occurring frequently in workplaces in the Busan area, and the Serious Accident Punishment Act has been expanded to apply to all companies with five or more regular employees. (Expansion of the Serious Accident Punishment Act: January 27, 2024. The Act is expanded to apply to individual business owners, workplaces with fewer than 50 regular employees, and construction projects under 5 billion KRW.) A special regional industrial accident reduction plan is being prepared accordingly.

Based on the results of the on-site patrol inspections, workplaces with a high likelihood of fatal accidents will be linked with the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s labor inspection division to promptly improve working environments in vulnerable workplaces and raise safety awareness among on-site workers.

Furthermore, due to a series of recent fatal accidents in the shipbuilding industry, Geoje City has been designated as a special management area for serious accidents. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, special measures such as permanent patrols, special inspections, and safety and health system diagnostics will be implemented. Regional-centered industrial accident prevention activities will also be strengthened by holding CEO meetings of large shipyards to devise additional measures.

Additionally, for workplaces with fewer than 50 employees that are insufficiently prepared for the Serious Accident Punishment Act, a self-diagnosis on the core content of the Act?establishing a safety and health management system?will be conducted. The Industrial Safety Grand Diagnosis project is underway, providing customized on-site support such as risk assessments, safety and health system establishment consulting, financial support, and educational support. To this end, the Busan Regional Headquarters has been operating an Industrial Safety Grand Diagnosis Consultation Support Center since the 29th of last month.

Director Kim Jun-hwi stated, “We are taking the recent multiple fatal accidents in the Busan area very seriously. I have instructed the establishment of urgent measures to reduce fatal accidents, and for the safety of workers, the labor office, the agency, and related organizations must collaborate to consolidate administrative capabilities,” urging extraordinary efforts.

Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

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