South Jeolla, Gwangju labor-management-government forum tackles workplace safety blind spots

The Ministry of Employment and Labor, local governments, labor and management groups, and occupational safety organizations gathered to discuss ways to prevent industrial accidents and address safety blind spots across South Jeolla Province and Gwangju.

The ministry held the "South Jeolla-Gwangju Industrial Safety and Health Governance Roundtable" on Wednesday at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju, jointly organized with the Gwangju Regional Employment and Labor Office and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

The event was designed to more effectively deliver safety and health policy and support to small workplaces and vulnerable workers through regional cooperation networks. Attendees included representatives from labor and management groups, occupational safety organizations, safety and health agencies, and local governments from South Jeolla Province, Gwangju and Jeju. Ryu Hyeon-cheol, head of the ministry's Industrial Safety and Health Bureau, also attended.

Participants discussed two themes: strengthening regional governance and eliminating safety and health blind spots. On the governance front, they shared updates on support projects targeting high-risk sectors — including small fishing vessel crews and workers at tangerine sorting facilities — and explored ways to improve them. They then heard firsthand accounts of safety and health difficulties faced on the job by vulnerable groups, including migrant workers, youth workers and subcontracted workers, and discussed regional approaches to addressing those challenges.

In his opening remarks, Ryu said the government had been pursuing industrial accident reduction as a core national policy priority, and that the number of fatal workplace accidents in the first quarter of this year had reached a record low. He cautioned, however, that workers were still dying on the job. "Accidents keep recurring — like the collapse at the Seosomun overpass demolition site and the explosion at Hanwha Aerospace," he said.

He added that the ministry would hold large workplaces accountable through safety and health disclosure requirements and rigorous investigations and inspections, while expanding technical and fiscal support for smaller workplaces that fall outside the policy safety net. "We will close the workplace risk gap," he said.

Ryu also said regional governance plays a critical role as the primary channel through which central government policy reaches the ground. "We need to work together to develop practical industrial accident prevention measures that reflect local characteristics, drawing on the trust built up in the South Jeolla and Gwangju communities," he said.

The ministry said it plans to continue gathering input from regional workplaces to inform industrial safety and health policy, and to strengthen local cooperation networks to expand accident prevention efforts.