Korea's shipbuilding: becoming safer and healthier

The shipbuilding industry in Korea has been in a poor safety and health situation with the number of accident victims continuing to grow over the past three years and the accident rate more than double the average for all industries. So the government has implemented a plan to reform the industrial accident prevention project for the shipbuilding industry. The plan aims to greatly reduce industrial accidents in the shipbuilding industry, the world’s number one in terms of order and production volume.
The plan is meant to help the shipbuilding industry raise its status and make itself worthy of its global standing by lowering its accident rate from 1.41% in 2009 to 1.2% (down by 14.9%p) by 2012 and thus creating a safe and healthy workplace.
The main features of the reform plan include strengthening tailored support reflecting differences in type of production system and size of enterprise; making institutional improvements with a focus on production sites to enhance the effectiveness of safety and health regulations; and strengthening cooperation on accident prevention activities to ensure the efficiency of such activities.
For a start, the government will strengthen tailored support different according to type of production system and size of enterprise. For large-scale shipyards (workplaces with 200 workers or more), the government will disseminate the shipbuilding safety and health management system that reflects the characteristics of the shipbuilding industry, such as complexity and mobility, and the production system in which one primary contractor and 100-odd suppliers work simultaneously. The government will continue to increase technical support for medium-sized shipyards (workplaces with 50~200 workers) and expand the scope of small workplaces (those with less than 50 workers) subject to intensive management.
Second, the government will make institutional improvements with a focus on production sites so that they can reflect the characteristics of the shipbuilding industry. Specifically, the Enforcement Regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act will be amended to differentiate the number of safety managers according to size of subcontractor. In the case of workplaces with 500 workers or more, two safety managers should be assigned regardless of their size. An additional safety manager should be assigned every time the number of workers increases by a certain percentage. To ensure the safety of temporary equipment and structures, such as platforms, hanging scaffolding, and guard rail stanchions, the government will set criteria for certification of their safety and continue to provide guidance on their usage. The government will revise the rules on occupational safety standards in consideration of the characteristics of the shipbuilding industry, conduct a survey to find out about the costs of occupational safety management, and pursue changing the way suppliers join industrial accident compensation insurance.
Along with this, in order to spread accident prevention across the shipbuilding industry, the government will strengthen cooperation on accident prevention activities. The government will set up a safety and health leadership group for the shipbuilding industry, consisting of the employers of the nine major shipbuilders, the president of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, and a government representative (Jun. 12) to create a wider consensus on accident prevention. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., which suffered a series of serious accidents earlier this year, will sign an agreement with the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (Jun. 12) to develop and apply new temporary equipment and structures and introduce a safety and health management system for  shipbuilding.
Yun Yang-bae, Director of the Safety and Health Inspection Division, Ministry of Labor, said, “I hope the plan will provide an opportunity to raise awareness of workers’ health and safety in Korea’s shipbuilding industry, the world’s number one in terms of order and production volume, and as a result, the industry, not content to remain as a big industry, will establish itself as a great industry that can boost the self-esteem of workers and the general public.”