SEOUL, September 1 (AJP) - South Korea's Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon pledged on Monday to reduce the number of fatal accidents at workplaces, including factories, to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average by 2030.
Speaking at a press conference at the government complex in the central city of Sejong, Kim said the ministry will try to reduce the industrial fatality rate from 0.39 deaths per 10,000 workers last year to the OECD's average of 0.29 within five years. The remark came less than two months after President Lee Jae Myung said during a Cabinet meeting in July that the government must root out industrial accidents following the fifth death this year at a construction site operated by POSCO E&C Co., a subsidiary of steelmaker POSCO.
Kim said the accidents disproportionately affect older employees, foreign workers, and delivery riders. He stressed that the government is preparing targeted measures for these groups, along with specialized programs for small businesses. The minister also said the government will impose penalties immediately upon finding violations, without prior correction orders, starting next month. The ministry also plans to expand inspections by operating a public reporting center and offering financial rewards beginning next year.
According to data released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor last month, 138 workers died in construction-related accidents in the first half of this year, up eight from a year earlier. Fatalities at small workplaces increased to 176, up by 21 from a year earlier (13.5 percent), while those at large sites with more than 50 workers fell to 111, down by 30 (21.3 percent). Foreign workers accounted for 38 deaths, or 13.2 percent of the total, continuing to make up more than 10 percent of annual fatalities.
Despite the Serious Accident Punishment Act being enforced since 2022, workplace fatalities have remained largely unchanged. Annual deaths have hovered above 2,000, with 2,062 in 2020, 2,080 in 2021, 2,223 in 2022, 2,016 in 2023, and 2,098 last year.
A National Assembly research report released at the end of last month said that of 1,252 cases investigated under the law, 917 cases, or 73.2 percent, remain under investigation by prosecutors. More than half of the probes have taken longer than six months, compared to 10 to 15 percent for other crimes. The acquittal rate has reached 10.7 percent, over three times higher than that of other criminal cases, reflecting the difficulty of proving that employers deliberately or negligently failed to comply with safety measures and that the accidents could have been reasonably foreseen.
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