Moon urges efforts to ward off accidents like Taean plant tragedy

SEOUL, Dec 17, 2018, Yonhap. President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for increased efforts to prevent industrial accidents involving contract employees, following the death of a young temporary inspector at a thermal power plant in the country’s central province, reported the Yonhap.

“The ‘outsourcing of risk’, a situation in which an employer passes the buck to others in the name of cost-saving, rather than taking responsibility for the worker’s safety, is not coming to a halt,” he said during a meeting with his top secretaries.

His remarks came after Kim Yong-gyun, a 24-year-old subcontract worker was killed in a conveyor belt accident at a thermal power plant in Taean, about 150 km south of Seoul on Tuesday. The death of the young man sparked public anger and calls for measures to better ensure contract workers’ safety and treatment at workplaces.

Extending his condolences to the victim’s family, Moon ordered a thorough investigation into the accident and instructed related ministries and government agencies to come up with measures to prevent similar accidents from recurring.

“I offer my condolences to Kim’s parents and pray for his soul,” Moon said. “It is a serious problem since accidents like this keep happening despite the fact that I have always put an emphasis on prioritizing people’s lives and safety.”

“I ask for detailed inspections to be carried out on every conveyor belt in every power plant in the country and check if they are operating properly so that we can put forward countermeasures.”

The president also called for swift parliamentary passage of a revised bill on the law regarding industrial safety and welfare so as to improve poor working conditions for irregular workers performing dangerous tasks without sufficient training or safety equipment.