Fines Imposed for 301 Cases of Law Violations
A labor authority’s inspection of Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Hyundai E&C) and its construction sites has found more than 300 violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Fifty-one workers have died while working for the company in the past 10 years.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor launched an inspection of Hyundai E&C’s main office and 68 construction sites across the nation in June to evaluate the company’s safety and health management systems and check for violations of the related laws.
The inspection found a host of problems, including understaffing and organizational insufficiency, a slow pace in executing safety-related budgets including those for safety education, the low acceptance of opinions and suggestions presented by field workers, and a lack of specialized education programs for partner companies.
In particular, while there were more than 500 health and safety managers at work sites, many of them were not full-time regular workers and were assigned to their posts without job ability tests.
The ministry strongly recommended the builder to improve its health and safety management systems.
Meanwhile, the ministry also discovered a number of violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act at Hyundai E&C’s headquarters and construction sites. The ministry slapped 391.4 million won in fines on the headquarters for 191 cases of law violations and 176.21 million won in fines on the company’s work sites for 76 cases of violations. The ministry also took legal actions against 25 cases of more serious law violations.