2024.06.28. The Fair Economy — Rep. Park Hong-bae, a member of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee, said on the 28th that Aricell — the company whose Hwaseong battery manufacturing plant was the site of a fatal fire — had passed a risk assessment certification review and been designated an "excellent workplace" for three years.
Under Article 36 of the current Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Guidelines on Workplace Risk Assessment, employers are required to conduct a risk assessment — with the participation of workers at the relevant workplace — covering every hazardous or risk factor that workers have been confirmed to be exposed to, or could reasonably be expected to be exposed to, on the job. The assessment must be carried out within one month of the business's establishment and reviewed regularly every year thereafter.
Employers seeking designation as an excellent workplace for risk assessments may also apply to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency for a certification review.
According to Rep. Park Hong-bae's office, Aricell applied to the agency for a certification review on February 2, 2021, and was designated an excellent workplace in risk assessment on February 25, 2021, after scoring 81 points, above the 70-point threshold required for certification. Follow-up reviews were subsequently conducted twice, on December 13, 2022 and December 26, 2023, in which Aricell scored 88 and 75 points respectively, allowing it to retain its excellent-workplace status for three years, until February 24, 2024.
The agency praised Aricell for the fact that the employer and officials in charge of risk assessment had completed training well and applied it effectively on site, and assessed that the company was making significant efforts to manage and improve workers' safety and health. The agency's records also show that Aricell had been accident-free from the start of its operations until December 26, 2023, when the second follow-up review took place. This raises suspicion of a possible cover-up by the company, however, given testimony from on-site workers that a fire had broken out on the Saturday immediately before this fatal blaze and had not been easily extinguished.
Risk assessments are significant in that they involve the participation of on-site workers who best understand the risks at their workplace. However, external verification and evaluation of such assessments take place only if a company applies to the agency for an excellent-workplace certification review. If a company does not apply for such a review, its legal obligations are fulfilled simply by conducting the assessment on its own, preserving the results for at least three years, and posting them for workers to see. In fact, the Ministry of Employment and Labor told Rep. Park Hong-bae's office, in response to its request for Aricell's risk assessment results, that it did not possess such data because submission was not mandatory. Employment and Labor Minister Lee Jeong-sik repeated the same explanation during a questioning session on current affairs on the 28th.
Rep. Park Hong-bae pointed out, "Under the current Serious Accidents Punishment Act, even if a serious accident occurs, employers and management officials may avoid punishment if they can show they fulfilled their safety and health obligations. This means the Ministry of Employment and Labor's formalistic safety inspections could actually serve as a free pass for employers."
He added, "I will focus my legislative activities on creating a system that substantively reflects the voices of workers, who know the risks best."
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