※ This report file is from reporter Jee Hee-won of the SBS Industrial Science Team, who has been covering related matters for one month since the enforcement of the Serious Disaster Punishment Act.
Reporter Hee-won Je faithfully captures the voices of the scene that she could hear during her coverage, and visits readers through all three coverage files.
[Editor's Note]
Articles of people who died or were injured at work were as familiar as the weather.
There must have been a lot more deaths that were not reported or made public.
Maybe it's because I'm so used to the massive industrial accident that happens when I forget it?
It's embarrassing, but saying that someone you don't even know 'lost your life at work' was a phrase that doesn't come easily to me.
Still, my eyes kept rolling.
The fact that there are people out there who die yesterday, die today, and may die tomorrow while going to make money often puts me to a stop.
Through the stories of people living after industrial disasters, I wanted to find a clue to the solution of the 'Republic of Industrial Accidents'.
"It is true that Woncheong cares about management and supervision. But…"
A shipyard is a place where dangerous and harmful factors are always lurking so much that it is called a 'department store for industrial accidents and occupational diseases'.
Another fatal accident occurred at Hyundai Heavy Industries' Ulsan Shipyard two days before the implementation of the Serious Disaster Act.
How about now, a month later?
The atmosphere conveyed by the shipyard subcontractors is as follows.
" It's
noisy, but I can't feel it. People at the site should feel that their safety has improved a bit, but it doesn't feel that
way
because the actual site hasn't changed.
Because it's so obvious... I'm
just trying to avoid it."
- Yoon Yong-jin, secretary general of Hyundai Heavy Industries' subcontractor union
In the 'Safety Work Plan for Prevention of Recurrence of Serious Disasters' (pictured) created in May of last year, HHI made it necessary to measure the gas concentration before entering a confined space to prevent suffocation.
However, it is not well maintained in the field.
The union explains why:
"We don't observe it in the
real world. There is no measuring instrument, and the union (the management) said we would measure it, but they said not to give it to them. Yes. They said it was expensive.
"
- Yoon Yong-jin, secretary general of Hyundai Heavy Industries' subcontractor union
If you take safety measures, 'time' is wasted, and the time taken for subcontractors to receive money is delayed as much as the time taken.
“The structure of the volume teams is that when they take on a block, they get paid when they finish it. That is, they get 100% of the money when they finish it within the (set) time. Then these people
get the job done quickly rather than taking safety measures (The management) knows this clearly and is giving that person a job.
If the worker's time for safety measures is included in the money received, there is no reason for rushing to work or neglecting safety measures. If you don't, you won't get paid."
"The workers say they don't follow it, but we have to make it possible to protect it."
The situation at other shipyards is no different.
“The exhaust system is installed. However, since it is formally installed at a distance of about 10m outside the workshop, there is not enough exhaust to actually work. There is no ventilation in the work space.” - Choi Choi-an, Vice President of Geoje Tongyeong High School Chosun Subcontracting Branch
The company said their claims were not true.
“The gas concentration meter is provided to the supervisor and is being managed periodically (Hyundai Heavy Industries),” he said.
After the implementation of the Serious Disaster Act, the 'atmosphere emphasizing safety' has been operating in this way.
When a major accident occurs, safety rules are extensively revised and measures to prevent recurrence are announced, but in the end, unless the 'multi-level subcontracting' structure, which is the root of the accident, is not repaired, the solution is far away.
74% of all fatal accidents after the enforcement of the 'Severe Accidents Act' 'Workplaces with fewer than 50 employees'
Let's look at the data released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.
During the month when the Serious Disaster Act was enacted, 42 workers lost their lives at work, a decrease of 10 compared to the same period last year.
The problem is small businesses.
The proportion of workplaces with less than 50 employees among workplaces where fatal accidents occurred increased.
Of the 35 fatal accidents that occurred after the law came into force, 74.2% (26) and 64.2% (27) of 42 deaths occurred at workplaces with fewer than 50 workers.
Among the fatal accidents and deaths that occurred during the same period last year, workplaces with fewer than 50 employees accounted for 61.5% of accidents and 61.5% of deaths.
At the time of enactment of the law, the application was delayed for two years to businesses with fewer than 50 employees in consideration of the difficulties of small businesses.
This is a construction site in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, reported by a viewer earlier this month.
Three workers wearing only hard hats on roof beams walk with reinforcing bars.
There are no other safety devices, so it looks quite dangerous just looking at the video.
I asked Hyung-Jun Ahn, a former professor of Architectural Engineering at the College of Architecture.
Professor Ahn said, "The workers in the video are presumed to be highly skilled workers, and it seems that they did not wear safety devices because of the inconvenience."
However, he added that the skill level is only an estimate, and that if an unskilled worker is put into that job, the risk of an accident is quite high.
The lack of detailed safety guidelines for each process at the construction site and the lack of safety training was also
pointed out as a problem.
The Institute of Construction Technology Education said that it is necessary to create more detailed safety guidelines and to educate them.
Above all, he pointed out that, compared to other countries, where the culture of self-defense without codified regulations has developed, Korea, which has developed expedients and tricks, needs more sophisticated preventive measures
.
"Let's not leave our lives to fate anymore"
Before and after the implementation of the Serious Disaster Act, I met both the business and labor circles.
Even with the same law, there was a big difference in temperature, saying that 'the focus is only on punishing employers' and 'it does not protect workers'.
He said that although small and medium-sized enterprises want to prepare like large enterprises, safety management costs are a burden on their livelihood.
The workers also complained that the more unstable the employment, the more difficult it was to refuse dangerous work.
The Major Disaster Act has now taken its first steps, but it seemed that more careful coordination was needed in the field.
Let's go back to the shipyard.
At the end of last year, Hyundai Heavy Industries subcontractors were instructed to put name tags on their hard hats.
It's one of the safety measures.
Coupang, which has suffered from overwork and fire accidents, still maintains the prohibition of bringing in cell phones while working.
It is a positive change for companies to increase their safety-related budgets and introduce several new policies.
But more important than labeling and disabling cell phones is creating a work environment where hazardous work does not happen in the first place
.
Even in the event of a dangerous situation, the right of workers to stop working for their own life and safety should be taken for granted.
We sometimes seem to forget that our health and life are incomparably more precious than the things we make.
*Reference Documents
Machang Geoje Industrial Accident Removal Movement Coalition, <I, Shipyard Worker>,
Labor Health Coalition, <2146, 529-The Death of a Worker No One Remembers
> Joon-Young Hong, Producer: D Content Planning Department)