<Anchor>
Tomorrow (26th) will mark one month of enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which makes it possible for business owners and managers to be criminally punished if a serious accident such as a fatal accident occurs at an industrial site.
We have checked how safe the industrial sites have been and whether there are any blind spots.
Reporter Jae Hee-won, as the law was enforced, companies avoided the first punishment, and they lost their bodies in this atmosphere, but despite that, industrial accidents followed, and not one or two places have already been investigated.
<Reporter>
Yes, the first fatal accident occurred three days after the Enforcement of the Serious Disaster Punishment Act.
If you look at this side together, three workers lost their lives when the soil collapsed at a quarry in Yangju, Gyeonggi-do.
Starting with the Yangju accident, a total of 11 workers lost their lives at the industrial site in one month, including two at the new construction site in Pangyo and four at the Yeocheon plant.
In Changwon, Gyeongnam, 16 employees were poisoned by toxic substances.
This accident became the first case in which an occupational disease was recognized as a serious accident.
A total of 6 serious accidents occurred within one month after the law came into force.
That's an accident about once every five days.
<Anchor>
There are not many places where serious disasters have occurred, but with the enforcement of the law, wouldn't there be some changes in the field from the past?
<Reporter>
Yes, it is clear that each company emphasizes safety in a different atmosphere.
The question is not just the atmosphere, but whether the appropriate safety measures are being implemented.
Let's go to the scene now.
This is the work site of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) Geoje Shipyard, which was filmed on the morning of the 25th.
Welding work produces flames and thick smoke without stopping.
The entire workshop fills with smoke in no time.
An exhaust system must be installed to prevent suffocation, but the union insists that all it takes is a formal installation of one at the entrance of the workplace 10 meters away.
[Yoo Choi-an/Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering subcontractor: Working here makes me out of breath, what should I do…
.
Last year, while working, one person died due to lack of ventilation.
(The company) said, 'If there is nothing that Woncheong does, we can't help it either.'
.]
On the 12th, Hyundai Heavy Industries Mipo Shipyard.
Colleagues set fire extinguishers on workers whose clothes are on fire, but they don't work.
After bringing another fire extinguisher, the fire is barely extinguished.
Is it just an exceptional situation?
At Hyundai Heavy Industries' Ulsan Shipyard, a worker in his 50s died three days before the law came into effect.
However, the day after the accident, a worker barely walks along the railing of a tower crane at an altitude of 20m.
The union says it's dangerous to go outside the railing even if you have a safety line.
A worker was also caught riding on a cargo crane that cannot be ridden by humans.
Dangers lurk everywhere, but unsecured subcontractors say it's hard to refuse risky work.
[Jung Dong-seok / Chairman of Hyundai Heavy Industries' subcontractor union: Who dares to stand against it and refuse to do dangerous work?
They were driven into the workplace even though they knew it was a dangerous job, and either got hurt or died.]
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering explained that the problem of poor exhaust exhaust at the workplace would have been resolved immediately if the union had informed them, but there were no complaints.
Hyundai Heavy Industries also said that in the case of work on a crane, there is no problem by attaching a seat belt and carrying out inspections to prevent recurrence of non-operation of fire extinguishers.
<Anchor>
My reporter, the site is still so dangerous. In fact, the media have been paying attention to fatal accidents in case of serious disasters, but in the field, there are many large and small injuries to workers, and they are included in serious accidents, right?
<Reporter>
Yes.
A serious accident also occurs when there are two or more injuries that require treatment for more than six months by law, or three or more occupational diseases occur in a year.
However, unlike fatal accidents, these injuries are more likely to be covered up.
I met a worker.
Kim Young-hee, who worked as a cleaning worker in a shipyard for 10 years.
A year ago, while cleaning the interior of a ship, I slipped and broke my left shoulder blade.
He was seriously injured with ruptured bones, ligaments and muscles, but the company-designated hospital made a diagnosis of 'no abnormality'.
[Kim Young-hee / Ex-cleaner: (At the designated hospital) There is nothing wrong.
I went to another hospital, and they said that I had to have an operation urgently because they said they had fractured bones, ruptured ligaments, and ruptured muscles just by taking X-rays.]
It took more than three months to be recognized as an industrial accident.
[Kim Young-hee / Ex-cleaner: I am a person who earns every day and eats, and I have to go to work again, but I don’t get approval for industrial accidents…
.
I have nowhere to complain.]
Mr. Kim is injured alone, but if two or more people are injured in the same accident at an industrial site, requiring treatment for more than 6 months, it is classified as a serious accident.
However, the voice of the field is that even if an injury accident is a subject of a serious disaster, it is easy to be buried under conciliation or pressure from the company.
[Kwon Dong-hee / Labor Attorney: There are a lot of accidents that are not up to the legal limit.
It is very difficult to be incorporated into an actual industrial accident due to problems such as pressure from business owners or conciliation for industry and commerce.]
Comparing industrial accidents in Korea with those in Europe, there are a lot of fatalities and few injuries.
Experts point out that it's not because there are fewer injuries, but because the statistics aren't getting it right.
<Anchor>
My reporter, and finally, industrial safety issues, what else do we need to look into?
<Reporter>
Invisible pain, that is, trauma.
Workers who witnessed a colleague dying or injured right next door suffer so much pain that they cannot stand at work.
I met the victim.
Five years ago, a Samsung crane accident that killed 6 workers and injured 25.
At that time, Kim Young-hwan, who witnessed the death of his colleague right before his eyes, is still unable to sleep without sleeping pills and antidepressants.
He returned to work because of his livelihood, but he faced criticism he never expected.
[Kim Young-hwan / Samsung Crane Accident Witness: Why are you still doing this because you can't overcome one of those things? I've heard a lot of things like that.]
Eventually, I had to quit my job.
His painful memories have even messed up his family life.
It wasn't the first time he couldn't contain his anger with his young son.
[Kim Young-hwan / Samsung Crane Accident Witness: I wasn't hurt, and I wasn't broken.
In the future, I am rather envious of those who died.]
Like Mr. Kim, the number of people who applied for industrial accidents due to post-traumatic stress disorder increased nearly three times compared to five years ago.
[Lee Eun-ju/Machang Geoje Industrial Disaster Removal Regiment Activist: I have to go back to work at the place where a colleague I worked with died.
The socially unacknowledged process of trauma also worsens the symptoms...
.]
Treatment support ends next year.
[Kim Young-hwan / Samsung Crane Accident Witness: I am still sick.
If you keep telling a sick person to stop, I don't know where or how to receive treatment.]
(Video coverage: Kim Won-bae, Video editing: Kim Kyung-yeon, Jeon Min-gyu)