Labor Minister Meets POSCO Executives Over Repeated Accidents: "Increase Safety Investment"

Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon met with POSCO Group executives on June 15 to address the recurring fatal accidents at the Shinansan Line railway construction site, urging the company to "increase investment in safety."

The meeting was arranged as part of urgent measures ordered by Minister Kim to prevent the recurrence of serious industrial accidents.

Attendees from POSCO Group included Chairman Jang In-hwa, POSCO E&C CEO Song Chi-young, and POSCO CEO Lee Hee-keun.

During the meeting, Minister Kim expressed concern over the repeated occurrence of similar types of serious accidents at POSCO Group worksites.

"For particularly hazardous sites like those of POSCO E&C and POSCO, special measures must be prepared and implemented on the ground," Minister Kim said, calling for expanded safety investment and effective on-site enforcement.

He further urged the company to "resolve job insecurity and poor working conditions for on-site safety and health managers," adding that "practical safety measures centered on supporting safety management for subcontractors must be implemented."

Minister Kim also emphasized, "All executives must recognize that a safe workplace is a prerequisite for corporate survival. I ask that POSCO Group, as a global company leading the South Korean economy, strive to become a model of safety management befitting its status and work to restore public trust."

Chairman Jang responded that the group would mobilize all available resources, including increasing the safety budget, to ensure that such accidents do not recur.

"Considering that the Shinansan Line project involves sections reaching depths of 70 meters, which are high-risk, we will convert all on-site safety specialists across all sections to permanent positions and increase their staffing beyond the legal requirement," Chairman Jang said. "We will also deploy supervisors from a world-class safety consulting firm to all Shinansan Line sites to ensure thorough management until the completion of construction."

POSCO Group also stated that it would re-examine and innovate the safety management systems across all group worksites.

"We will make painstaking efforts to create a safer workplace and become a group trusted by the public, ensuring that not a single worker fails to return home from their job," the group emphasized.

Previously, on the afternoon of June 9, a 35-year-old subcontractor worker died after falling 15 meters while working to expand an opening for cable tray installation at a construction site for the Shinansan Line in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, which is being built by POSCO E&C.

Since 2024, a total of four accidents have occurred at the Shinansan Line construction site, resulting in the deaths of four workers.

Including this latest incident, a total of 10 people have lost their lives at POSCO E&C sites over the past three years.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.