Five Workers Have Died in Hyundai Heavy Industries Accidents This Year, Union Seeks Labor Minister Meeting

Five workers have died in serious accidents at Hyundai Heavy Industries this year, all of them subcontracted workers who were working alone, the Korean Metal Workers’ Union said.

The union held a news conference outside the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office on the 3rd and submitted a request to meet Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon. It called for fundamental safety measures and strong punishment for management under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, arguing that repeated deaths will continue without accountability.

The deaths began with a fire in April at the Ulsan shipyard during submarine maintenance. In July, a migrant worker from Uzbekistan was caught in equipment at the Ulsan shipyard on July 18, followed by another entrapment accident at the Gunsan shipyard on July 24. On the 14th of last month, a worker run over by a reversing trailer at the Yongyeon plant died while receiving treatment on the 1st. On the 28th, another worker was found dead after falling from a ladder at Hanuri Hall, a welfare facility at the Ulsan shipyard.

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The accidents would not have occurred if the two-person work principle and safety training tailored to working conditions had been implemented thoroughly.

Jeong Sang-man, a union vice chairman and head of its occupational safety and health committee, said the accidents could have been prevented if the company had strictly enforced two-person work teams and provided safety training tailored to working conditions.

After the two July entrapment accidents, Hyundai Heavy Industries halted operations at all its plants from July 29 to 31 for a safety shutdown. A special inspection involving 62 officials from the Labor Ministry and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency began on the 18th. The union said deaths continued despite those measures. Lim Yong-hyun of the Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health criticized shipbuilding practices, saying workers were being sacrificed to competition over performance as companies pursued shorter schedules and lower costs during an expected boom.

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With an unprecedented boom expected in shipbuilding, shortening schedules and cutting costs have become key to profitability, so workers are being sacrificed to competition over performance.