Five power firms show uneven workplace safety records despite hundreds of billions in spending, ahead of merger

Safety budgets among the five state-owned power companies set to merge differ by as much as 200 billion won ($149 million), data released ahead of a parliamentary audit showed. With workplace accident rates also diverging across the firms, lawmakers and industry observers are calling for a thorough review of on-site safety management systems before the integration proceeds — and warning that cost-cutting pressures during the merger could push accident-prevention investment to the back burner.

According to data submitted to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Ki-hyun, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, the five companies — Korea South-East Power, Korea Southern Power, Korea East-West Power, Korea Western Power and Korea Midland Power — allocated an average of 671.7 billion won in safety-related budgets this year.

Korea East-West Power posted the highest figure at 791.6 billion won, followed by Korea South-East Power at 693.7 billion won, Korea Western Power at 690.3 billion won, Korea Midland Power at 607.1 billion won and Korea Southern Power at 576.2 billion won. The gap between the top and bottom spenders — East-West Power and Southern Power — reached 215.4 billion won.

Industry sources said safety budgets tend to fluctuate from year to year depending on maintenance schedules for power generation equipment. "In years when an overhaul — a full disassembly and inspection of generating units — is carried out, budget outlays tend to increase," one industry official said.

In fact, last year Korea Western Power led the group with 721.3 billion won in safety spending, while Korea South-East Power recorded the lowest at 545.9 billion won. Both the rankings and the budget figures shift from year to year across the five companies.

Workplace accident rates also varied by company. Korea South-East Power's rate fell from 0.23 percent in 2022 to 0.25 percent in 2023, 0.21 percent in 2024 and 0.11 percent last year. Korea Southern Power recorded 0.23 percent, 0.36 percent, 0.12 percent and 0.13 percent over the same period.

Korea East-West Power moved in the opposite direction, rising from 0.10 percent in 2022 to 0.14 percent in 2023, 0.22 percent in 2024 and 0.46 percent last year — three consecutive years of increases — giving it the highest accident rate among the five firms last year. Korea Western Power also climbed from 0.10 percent in 2022 to 0.26 percent last year. Korea Midland Power declined from 0.21 percent to 0.14 percent over the same span, though its rate swung between 0.07 percent in 2023 and 0.21 percent in 2024.

The diverging trends in safety budgets and accident rates have raised questions about how unified safety standards and investment priorities will be set after the merger. Because the required level of spending varies with the characteristics of each facility, its maintenance cycle and working conditions, experts say the integration should produce site-specific risk assessments rather than across-the-board cost reductions.

Earlier, President Lee Jae Myung identified the competitive structure among the five power companies as one cause of workplace accidents during a Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy briefing late last year. "Isn't it the case that, because they compete, they try to cut labor costs, and that leads to more industrial accidents at the power companies?" Lee said at the time, raising the possibility that inter-company competition was driving down labor costs and weakening safety management.

However, some observers caution that the variation in budgets and accident rates across the firms makes it difficult to conclude that consolidation alone will reduce workplace injuries. They argue that the integration process must include a close analysis of each company's working environment and safety management practices, followed by prevention measures tailored to the conditions at each site.

"The fact that accident rates vary so widely across companies despite hundreds of billions of won in spending points to a problem with on-site safety systems, not the size of the budget," Kim said. "Merging organizations does not automatically reduce accidents. We must put thorough safeguards in place during the integration to ensure that the safety of workers on the ground is not pushed aside by arguments about efficiency and cost-cutting."