Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |
The Central Accident Control Headquarters for the fire accident at the Hwaseong Aricell factory held its 3rd
meeting at the Seoul Government Complex on the 13th and announced 'measures to strengthen the safety
of foreign workers and small businesses'.
In the process of strengthening safety management at small businesses, risk assessment standards are streng
thened, and consulting and follow-up management are provided for vulnerable workplaces.
This is a follow-up measure to the emergency safety support implemented on the 18th of last month to prevent fire accidents at battery handling businesses. It was prepared based on field opinions from foreign
workers, business owners, and industry-specific cooperatives and organizations resolving blind spots in safety
training for foreign workers.
South Korean government included a plan to ensure that all foreign workers, up to 920,000, receive basic safety and health education. “We encourage them to receive basic professional safety and health education at least once before or upon employment,” said the authorities.
Under the Ministry of Justice's social integration program, a basic safety and health education course will be
established for the foreign workers with F-class visas having many jobs.
The Korean Overseas Koreans' Settlement Support Guidebook also includes basic safety information and industrial accident compensation information.
Educational institutions such as the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency provide on-site training at
local industrial complexes. Experiential education using public (3 locations) and private (about 200 locations)
training centers will also be expanded to complete the task.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance explained, "In addition to the Employment Permit System, we will also
quickly push forward with revising the Occupational Safety and Health Act to institutionalize that all foreign
workers must complete basic safety and health education at a specialized training institution before being
assigned to the workplace."
In order to train professional foreign language safety education instructors, a ‘safety and health interpreter’
qualification system will be introduced.
In addition, long-term foreign workers are designated as 'foreign safety leaders' in the company or region and are supported to pass on safety training and work know-how to other foreign workers.
