Since the Serious Accident Punishment Act was enforced, fifteen workers died in accidents that occurred in construction projects ordered or directly carried out by upper and lower-tier local governments.

On June 23, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that after analyzing the status of serious accidents that occurred in the first half of this year, they confirmed that from January 27, when the Serious Accident Punishment Act was enforced, to June 17, fifteen workers died in accidents that occurred in construction projects ordered by or directly executed by local governments.

Not much had improved since the same period last year, when seventeen workers died. The Serious Accident Punishment Act was enforced, allowing the state to punish the CEO of the company ordering the project as well as the contractor who hired the worker when a fatal accident occurs. But the number of accidents is not declining in local governments. According to this law, when an accident occurs in the local government, the chief of the local government (mayor, governor, etc.) can be subject to punishment. The Occupational Safety and Health Act stipulates that the chief of the local government is to establish plans to prevent industrial accidents in her jurisdiction and to supervise the workplace.

A closer look at the latest analysis showed that in projects carried out by the local governments, there was one accident where a worker fell; one where a worker was buried under a tree while logging (Sacheon City Hall, Gyeongsangnam-do); one where a worker was caught between a vehicle and the wall while collecting and transporting excretion (Yongsan-gu Office, Seoul); and a fire when watering the trees (Gangseo-gu Office, Busan). In construction projects ordered by the local governments, there were five incidents where a worker fell, three where a worker was caught between objects, one where a worker was hit, one where a worker was buried under objects, and one where a worker collided with another object.

The labor ministry asked each local government to inspect the status of safety measures on construction sites for projects they carried out and projects they hired contractors for, as well as the status of the establishment and operation of a safety and health management system, and also distributed a self-inspection checklist. Kim Chul-hee, director-general of occupational safety and health policy at the labor ministry said, “We will continue to cooperate and work with local governments through training and joint inspections, so that they can play an active role in preventing industrial accidents in their jurisdiction.”