Robot ran with safety door open despite 'all fixed' report: labor ministry

A surprise follow-up inspection of a manufacturing company that had reported completing all safety measures flagged by the Ministry of Employment and Labor found that the fixes had not held up — an industrial welding robot was found operating even with its protective door open.

The ministry said it would revisit 500 workplaces inspected this year that carry a high risk of continued accidents to check whether they have actually made improvements.

Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon paid an unannounced visit to a manufacturing company in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday. He checked whether safety measures flagged during an April inspection were actually functioning on site. The company employs a large number of foreign workers.

During the April inspection, the ministry found multiple safety violations at the site. These included inadequate measures to prevent gas cylinders from tipping over, a lack of emergency and pedestrian passageways, and missing guardrails in the work area. It ordered corrective action. The employer later submitted a report saying all the flagged issues had been fixed.

But the latest surprise inspection found that some of those fixes, including the gas cylinder tip-prevention measures, had not been properly maintained.

The industrial welding robot was found running even with its protective door open, meaning the equipment would not stop operating even if a worker entered the danger zone. With the earlier corrective measures unmet and new hazards discovered, the ministry ordered immediate improvements.

Inspectors also examined whether safety training for foreign workers was actually effective. Inspectors found that the company had conducted safety training mainly using Korean-language materials without adequately confirming whether workers understood the content. It also had not installed pictograms — picture-based safety and health signs — near hazardous machinery and work zones.

The ministry instructed the company to use safety signs and training materials centered on images and symbols that foreign workers can intuitively understand.

"Submitting a compliance report should not be a mere formality," Kim said. "Maintaining a safe working environment on an ongoing basis is both the ability and the duty of management, and employers must keep in mind that complacency can lead to serious industrial accidents."

"What matters is not simply whether foreign workers received safety training, but whether they actually understood the content," he said. "Explaining what is dangerous and what kind of accidents can occur is the first step of safety education."

The ministry plans to strengthen safety training for foreign workers using the multilingual safety and health app FOR365, safety and health content tailored for foreign workers, and on-site foreign worker industrial safety education programs. It also plans to continue surprise inspections targeting workplaces that employ large numbers of foreign workers and those with weak safety management.