Last Saturday, an employee in her 20s died at a factory affiliated with SPC Group, known for the Paris Baguette bakery chain, after her upper body was caught in a sauce mixer. The victim, who majored in baking in high school, had worked hard, dreaming of opening her own bakery. Many people are grieving her death and are also outraged by the apparent lack of concern the company showed for the safety of its workers.
In the factory, only two of nine mixers had automatic protective devices, or interlocks, which cause the machine to stop when the cover is opened. Proving how essential these devices are for safety, 15 out of 37 accidents over the past five years ― or 40.5 percent ― involved workers getting caught in a machine. The company could have easily prevented these horrific accidents if it had installed interlocks on all mixers.
Money seems to be why the nation's No. 1 baking company failed to invest in facilities. The group put profits far ahead of workers' lives and safety. Citing the fact that the Ministry of Employment and Labor had ordered only seven units without safety devices to suspend work after the accident, the company immediately resumed the operations of the other two the following day. Employees were forced to work next to a machine in which one of their colleagues had died just the day before.
The government cannot be free from blame for SPC's bad practices of ignoring workplace safety. SPC had long been criticized for its practices that fail to address the safety of workers. In 2017, it caused controversy due to the illegal hiring of over 5,000 subcontracted workers in Paris Baguette shops and the overdue payment of wages due to computer manipulation, and then vowed to correct the problems. However, it failed to keep the promise, triggering a consumer boycott of its products.
President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the labor ministry to check if there were any structural problems behind the accident. The underlying cause of the workplace disaster is that SPC's management turned a blind eye to safety rules stipulated in the Serious Disaster Punishment Act. Despite such companies clearly and repeatedly neglecting worker safety, the pro-business, conservative government and the ruling party are trying to revise the law to help CEOs of businesses avoid harsh punishment under the law. If the president wants to show his sincerity, he should take action to strengthen ― not weaken ― the act.