“Even if there is no accident right now, you don’t know what will happen, go up
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A former cleaning worker in his 50s still can't flex his wrists properly.
He, who was a member of a subcontracted cleaning agency contracted with the district office, fell from a 3m high garbage truck while collecting recycled garbage in June of last year.
Styrofoam boxes stacked all the way up to the top of the car were trying to be fixed with rubber bands to keep them from falling, but the old bands broke and were thrown out with the reaction.
Fortunately, his life was saved, but both of his wrists were broken and iron rods were driven in, leaving him permanently disabled after six weeks of treatment.
He said that he was still working on the same even though it had been more than a year since the accident.
The same night, I followed the garbage truck he was riding.
The sanitation workers were repeating the task of collecting and unloading garbage on top of the vehicle, which was dangerous to look at while still stepping on a thin iron bar.
As he said, nothing has changed since the accident.
507 fall accidents in the last 6 years… 'One person falls every 4.3 days'
The Ministry of Environment collects industrial accident applications and approvals of sanitation workers every year.
From 2017 to September this year, a total of 507 environmental sanitation workers applied for industrial accidents due to falls.
With an annual average of 84.5 people, that means one person falls from a height every 4.3 days.
Most of these accidents occur during recycling waste collection operations.
Unlike general garbage or food waste that is put in volume-rate bags, recycling waste such as Styrofoam boxes is bulky.
So if you want to load as many as possible at one time, you have no choice but to stack them on top of the vehicle.
So sanitation workers have to climb up and down the top of the sweeper hundreds of times a day, and then fall and get hurt.
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Who pushed them to the top of the garbage truck
Environmental sanitation workers are divided into two main types.
There are public service employees belonging to local governments or affiliated public companies, and there are employees of cleaning agencies contracted with local governments.
The official name of the latter is domestic waste collection and transportation service.
Almost all of the people who dispose of the garbage we put out every day are subcontractors.
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In subcontracting, as in many other industries, safety always comes at a cost.
An official from a cleaning agency I met during the interview process was cynical.
“Even if the garbage truck is made of rubber, not metal, and even if it is made of sponge, people who get hurt will get hurt. That’s why they keep going up to load even one more.”
"Aren't we forcing you to strictly follow the safety rules? Then, all the sanitation workers say they quit. Because they have to run tens of thousands more steps. Does the ward office increase the number of vehicles or pay more for them to follow the safety rules? Or do they clean it? Does it reduce the area? The amount of work is fixed anyway."
'Warning for the 1st accident, 1 million won for the 2nd'... The naked face of 'outsourcing of risk'
I was at a loss for words at such an assertive reply.
So, when I asked the local government, the main contractor, what kind of disadvantages it gives to the company in the event of an environmental sanitation worker accident, I got this answer.
"(Life accident) Warning for the first occurrence, 1 million won for the second occurrence, 2 million won for the third occurrence.
It is specified in the special contract conditions of the cleaning agency."
What about criminal liability?
The Occupational Safety and Health Act stipulates that in places where workers are at risk of falling, necessary measures must be taken to prevent the hazard.
However, when I asked the labor inspector of the Ministry of Labor, who is in charge of this, most of them replied that punishment was difficult.
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"If the company forced you to climb into the garbage truck and work, it could be against the law. But when you go out to investigate and listen to the work, most companies gave safety training not to climb up, but if the sanitation workers do that, they have to come and go much more, so it's the case that they went up. ."
“In my personal opinion, it is also related to the local government, which is the main contractor. But if that happens, it's a matter of budget."
In the end, it comes to a very strange conclusion that people fall from the garbage truck every week and get hurt, but no one told them to go up.
Throughout the coverage, the word 'outsourcing of risk' lingered in my head.
How should we answer the sanitation worker's question, "Who needs to die to change?"
We wish everyone safety who cleans up our society every night.