The Ulsan District Prosecutors’ Office has indicted 18 officials of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. (HHI), including its CEO, on charges of violating the Industrial Safety and Health Act.
In fact, the suspects, including the CEO and former and current senior managers at the shipbuilder, were charged with violating industrial safety laws or professional negligence resulting in death.
The 18 indicted officials included HHI president Han Young-seuk, former and current heads of the company’s business divisions and teams, representatives and field managers of three subcontractors.
To remind, at HHI’s Ulsan shipyard, four major industrial accidents occurred in 2020 including the death of a worker by suffocation during piping work on an LNG carrier deck. The number of such serious cases surged from one in 2019.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor conducted regular and special safety inspections on HHI from September 2019 to July 2020 and found 653 cases where the company failed to take appropriate safety measures.
HHI announced in June 2020 that it would invest 300 billion won in safety management for three years after receiving a special labor inspection from the Ministry of Employment and Labor due to frequent industrial accidents. But it is unclear whether the action has paid off.
