7월 청년 끼임사 전에도…만도, 6년간 21건 끼임사고 있었다

Last month, 28-year-old young worker Kim Seung-mo perished in a "trapped" accident at HL (Heungil) Group's manufacturing facility in Hwaseong, South Korea. Over the past six years, there have been a total of 21 such incidents, with 15 of them involving Kim's tragic death. Kim's company submitted a "prevention of recurrence measures" to the labor ministry, but failed to actively implement or comply with them.

The Ministry of Labor's "Industrial Safety and Health Standards" require operators to halt machinery if there is a concern for workers' safety. One month before Kim's death, another similar incident occurred at the same plant, and the company claimed that "unsafe equipment function" was the cause, but failed to adhere to their own safety measures.

Kim was working on a machine without a safety device, while other machines had their safety devices overridden with cable ties to keep up production. The committee advocating for Kim's case submitted a report to the leader of the Democratic Party, urging a special inspection of the company's factories. The Ministry of Labor's deputy director of industrial safety and health standards stated that if a prevention plan had been properly implemented, Kim's death could have been prevented.

The ministry is also reviewing the investigation into the company, as the chairman of the company is under investigation for violating the special handling of major accidents act.