Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Hyundai Motor takes anti-MERS measures
Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Yoon Yeo-chul, right, checks out the carmaker’s plant in Ulsan, Monday. Korea’s largest automaker said it is taking all possible measures to prevent Middle East Respiratory Syndrome from affecting its employees. / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor
By Lee Hyo-sik
By Lee Hyo-sik
Hyundai Motor Group said Monday it is taking all possible measures to prevent the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus from affecting its employees.
Chairman Chung Mong-koo presided over an emergency meeting at the company’s headquarters in southern Seoul, in which he ordered heads of group affiliates to institute all possible measures against the disease.
Following the meeting, Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Yoon Yeo-chul went to the firm’s plant in Ulsan to check on what the facility was doing to keep the virus at bay. Kia Motors CEO Park Han-woo also visited the carmaker’s main plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
“Thousands of employees work at each of our plants. If a single worker gets infected with the MERS virus, he or she could easily spread it to others,” a Hyundai Motor spokesman said. “A single case of MERS could shut down the entire facility. This is why we are taking all possible precautionary measures.”
Hyundai Motor Group ordered all group units to be aware of guidelines on how to cope with a MERS infection if it hits their workplaces.
The group also provided employees with facial masks, hand sanitizers and thermometers at its offices and factories across the country.
Thermal image cameras have been installed at the carmaker’s headquarters and other major offices in order to screen people with unusually high body temperature.
“All team managers have to check on their subordinates on a daily basis to see whether they display MERS symptoms, such as a high fever,” the spokesman said. “We have prevented employees from visiting the Middle East for the time being, and postponed large-scale functions here and abroad.”