Labor ministry launches intensive inspection of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries

The labor ministry said Tuesday it had begun an intensive inspection of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries after two fatal entrapment accidents occurred within a week, citing recurring accidents of the same kind.

The ministry described the action as an inspection at an intensity equivalent to special supervision. The 62-member team, drawn from local and regional labor offices and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, will review the Ulsan and Gunsan shipyards where the accidents occurred, the company's headquarters and plants designated high-risk facilities early this year.

The inspection will examine compliance with core safety rules for entrapment incidents as well as collisions, falls, fires and explosions, and suffocation. It will also assess whether measures taken after earlier accidents were carried out, whether headquarters-level safety and health systems are operating, and whether risk assessments are conducted effectively.

Violations uncovered in the inspection will face immediate judicial action, while issues requiring change will draw ministry guidance. The ministry will reinspect the company after the current review and examine whether improvements continue to be implemented.

"Repeated serious accidents of the same type demonstrate that a company's safety management system is not functioning properly," Kim Young-hoon, minister of employment and labor, said. "The company must analyze past serious accidents and near misses to determine whether major hazards at its shipyards are being properly managed."

The government will apply a zero-tolerance policy to companies where fatal accidents of the same type recur.