Metal workers' union criticizes Hyundai Heavy over 5 deaths despite intensified inspections

The Korean Metal Workers' Union has urged the Ministry of Employment and Labor to investigate the effectiveness of its workplace inspections at Hyundai Heavy Industries, after a worker died during what the ministry described as a high-intensity oversight operation. The union also called on Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon to meet with union representatives directly and to institutionalize union participation in serious accident investigations.

The union said in a press statement released Thursday that five workers have died this year in serious accidents at Hyundai Heavy Industries. It said the ministry launched an intensive inspection — equivalent to a special oversight operation — on Aug. 18, yet another fatal accident occurred on Aug. 28, calling into question the inspections' real-world impact.

According to the union, a worker was found lying in a pool of blood in the basement mechanical room of Hyundai Heavy Industries' Hanuri Hall at around 8:23 p.m. on Aug. 28. The worker was taken to a hospital but died. The union said an A-frame ladder with a crushed lower rung was found at the scene, and believed the worker had been working alone on the ladder and fell.

Earlier, on Aug. 14, a worker at Hyundai Heavy Industries' Yongyeon factory was struck by a reversing trailer. That worker died Tuesday while receiving treatment, the union said.

The union said both accidents resulted from failures to observe basic safety measures. In the ladder incident, the worker was operating alone; in the trailer accident, the vehicle reversed in a confined space without a spotter. The union said fundamental measures — including two-person work teams and the deployment of spotters — must be properly enforced.

Three other fatal accidents had already occurred at Hyundai Heavy Industries earlier this year, the union said.

On April 9, a fire broke out on a submarine undergoing maintenance, killing one worker. On July 18, a migrant worker died after becoming trapped between a gondola and scaffolding. On July 24, a worker at the Gunsan shipyard died after being caught between a tack-welding machine and a lug during H-beam assembly work.

The union said the ministry must thoroughly investigate the state of inspections at local labor offices, noting that a fatal accident occurred even with 62 inspectors deployed. It argued that the ministry needs to examine whether its inspection methods and on-site safety management systems are actually functioning, given the repeated occurrence of conventional serious accidents involving entrapment, falls and collisions.

The union also questioned the company's own safety measures. It said Hyundai Heavy Industries conducted a three-day safety shutdown starting July 29 and pledged to intensively address workplace hazards, yet fatal accidents continued afterward, and called for measures with genuine effect.

The union's demands of the ministry were: direct talks between Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon and the Korean Metal Workers' Union, an investigation into the state of labor inspections and the formulation of countermeasures, institutionalization of union participation in serious accident investigations, and the detention of Hyundai Heavy Industries executives responsible under the law. The union also urged the National Assembly to summon executives Lee Sang-gyun and Geum Seok-ho as witnesses at the national audit and hold them accountable.

From Hyundai Heavy Industries, the union demanded a public apology from management and guaranteed union participation in investigating accident causes and establishing recurrence-prevention measures. It urged HD Hyundai Group to accelerate disbursement of 3.5 trillion won ($2.56 billion) in safety budgets for the shipbuilding division. The union also called for guaranteed treatment for workers experiencing trauma, including those who responded to the accidents and witnesses.

"Serious accidents cannot be prevented by a management attitude of just waiting out the storm, or by labor inspections that are mere imitation," the union said, urging Minister Kim to answer directly for how he intends to take responsibility for workers' lives and safety.