ed Cut workplace mishaps

As cover-ups make it impossible to solve problems, it’s essential to bring them to light by all means.

No other areas are better applied to this argument than industrial disasters. The cover-up problem is even more glaring among subcontractors of large companies, because they are fearful of the cancellation of their contracts.

At a press conference on Tuesday, labor groups in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan accused Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) of covering up 86 industrial accidents. Of them, 80 mishaps victimized workers belonging to in-house subcontractors, whereas the rest hit the company’s regular workers.

The labor groups said as many as eight non-regular workers of HHI and its two affiliates died in fires and other workplace disasters within two months. Company officials denied the cover-up allegations, and it is debatable whether HHI should be responsible for the mishaps of its subcontractors.

But it’s deplorable that laborers died in succession while working for the world’s largest shipbuilder. Furthermore, we would be speechless if it’s true the company concealed mishaps as the labor groups claim.

One of the valuable lessons from the sinking of the ferry Sewol would be the public’s need for strengthened safety awareness, and it’s needless to say in this regard that the government should do what it can to prevent industrial accidents at workplaces.

Yet it’s dreadful to know our status when it comes to workplace disaster management. Last year alone, nearly 85,000 people were victims of industrial accidents, and 1,090 of them were killed. This put Korea at the top among OECD countries as far as industrial mishaps are concerned, with economic losses amounting to more than 19 trillion won.

It’s not hard to reason why Korea has become so prone to industrial disasters. Large companies, driven by cost-cutting targets, usually outsource all their dangerous work, and subcontractors, which obtain orders at low prices, push workers into hazardous jobs without investing in enhancing safety standards.

Few conglomerates are free from criticism regarding industrial disasters. At Hyundai Steel’s plant in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, 13 workers died in nine accidents between September 2012 and January of this year. Samsung Group is no exception with some of its affiliates hit by workplace mishaps.

In her nationally televised speech on Monday, President Park Geun-hye vowed to toughen penalties against those who inflict enormous losses on people’s lives and property, and this pledge is a welcome development.

Regardless of the ferry catastrophe, it goes without saying that all companies should make all-out efforts to minimize accidents at their workplaces. They need to look at their expenses for safety education and training as investments, not costs, and it’s certain that such expenditures will pay off in the long run ― possibly in the form of productivity gains.