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Experts advise stronger monitoring of workplace safety, proper and timely treatment
By Lee Hyo-jin
A 24-year-old Uzbek worker at a waste disposal company in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, died after getting stuck in a shredding machine, July 29.
In the same month, a 33-year-old Sri Lankan worker at a plastic manufacturing factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, was found dead after he was caught in a compressor.
These cases are among many tragic deaths of workers of foreign nationality who have fallen victim to occupational accidents in Korea.
Data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor submitted to Rep. Kang Eun-mi of the social democratic minor opposition Justice Party showed that one in eight ― or 12 percent ― of the victims of fatal occupational accidents that have occurred over the past 18 months were workers of foreign nationality.
A total of 1,113 workers died between January 2020 and June this year, 135 of whom were foreign national workers.
Given that workers of foreign nationality hold only some 4 percent of the total 24 million salaried employee positions in the country, the fatality rate is higher for foreign nationals than for Korean nationals.
"As migrant workers often take jobs shunned by Koreans, such as in agriculture, fisheries and the so-called 3D (dirty, difficult, dangerous) sectors, they are exposed to a higher risk of industrial or workplace disasters," Rep. Kang said, stressing the need to increase preventive measures to ensure workplace safety.
Experts insist that the government and employers put efforts into rectifying this problem by strengthening the monitoring of workplace safety and guaranteeing proper treatment and compensation for those suffering from injuries due to occupational accidents.
"Occupational accidents occur more frequently among new foreign workers who are unfamiliar with the working process and less fluent in Korean. Employers should make more efforts to ensure that those workers get proper safety training," Sul Dong-hoon, a professor of sociology at Chonbuk University, told The Korea Times.
Sul pointed out that workplace discrimination may also be one of the reasons for the high fatality rate among people of foreign nationality working in Korea.
"In some cases, crucial safety equipment, such as gas masks and helmets, is provided (in discriminatory fashion) only to Korean nationals. Employers should adhere fully to safety measures and recognize that the lives and safety of their workers are the top priority― irrespective of the nationality of the workers."
Kim Dal-sung, head of the Pocheon Migrant Worker Center, said that in addition to efforts to prevent work-related accidents, the labor authorities should come up with ways to ensure proper treatment for the victims of such accidents.
"Many migrant workers at factories, construction sites or farms are not registered for employment or industrial accident insurance," he said. "Workers who fail to receive proper and timely hospital treatment can then be left with lifelong disabilities."
But it's the same even for workers who have been registered for insurance, as many employers refuse to report occupational accidents and instead hide them from the authorities in order to avoid facing liability and penalties, according to Kim.
"The government should make sure that every victim of workplace accidents receives proper treatment in time, while guaranteeing foreign national workers a fully safe environment."
