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SPC launches new whistleblower committee to prevent factory accidents
CEOs of SPC subsidiaries and senior executives attend the inaugural meeting of the group’s new Transformation Office at SPC’s headquarters in Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of SPC
By Ko Dong-hwan
Giant food conglomerate SPC has launched a new internal committee aimed at reporting the organization’s safety issues and ensuring compliance with the country’s labor laws.
The move follows the death of a female employee at an SPC Samlip factory in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, in May, which sparked public outrage and prompted a police investigation.
According to SPC Tuesday, its Transformation Office was launched the previous day and held its first meeting at the group’s office in southern Seoul. The 10-member committee is led by Hur Jin-soo, CEO of Paris Croissant, SPC’s cafe subsidiary. It includes CEOs of other key affiliates — including SPC Samlip, BR Korea, SPC GFS, SPL and Secta9ine — as well as senior executives from across the group.
Two representatives, one man and one woman, from the company’s labor union also joined the committee. In addition, the vice president of Korean Air’s IT and Marketing Division joined as an external member.
The Transformation Office is comprised of three subcommittees focusing on the conglomerate’s safety system, welfare policies and legal compliance.
In the meeting, the committee decided to advise to the SPC Committee a prompt introduction of a “safety smart factory.” The SPC Committee consists of CEOs of the conglomerate’s 51 subsidiaries. According to the conglomerate, the factory will be equipped with artificial intelligence-based technologies, smart sensors and robotic automation to maximize safety nets for its manufacturing operation.
The committee suggested the new factory will improve the conglomerate’s workplace safety overall by manufacturing certain products for the conglomerate’s existing plants and reducing work hours and workloads for employees in those plants.
“There is a great expectation within SPC about the Transformation Office and how all the CEOs will discuss and improve the conglomerate’s welfare policies,” said Kim Se-eun, a labor union representative for female employees at Paris Croissant.
Another SPC official said the new committee will be “like a pivot for SPC to roll out actual action plans from the ideas about the group’s restructuring and innovation.”