“Worker"s right to know and safety should be widely guaranteed" (04-17- 2003)
NHRC gives recommendations to the Ministry of Labor on the proposed amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Industrial Safety and Health Act
In response to the request made in March 2003 by the Ministry of Labor for an opinion on the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, the National Human Rights Commission made the following recommendations: 1) create a system of mandatory disclosure of workplace where major industrial accidents occur 2) reform provisions to reduce the assigned duties of the safety inspectors 3) expand the list of businesses that are banned from subcontracting work 4) supplement regulations on labeling of harmful substances.
Generally, problems arising from industrial safety and health issues can violate the human rights of workers, cause loss of profit through management and worker conflict, and eventually cause damages to labor, management and government through increased indirect and direct costs to the nation. Given the high number of industrial accidents in Korea, the NHRC concluded that in the long run, there was a need to improve the three basic systems of industrial safety and health management: the system of legal employment, the supervision of work places with major industrial accidents, and management of harmful substances.
However, instead of strengthening restrictions, the following regulations in the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, submitted by the Ministry of Labor, appear to have been further weakened: 1) list of work places disclosed 2) scope of joint assignments of safety inspectors and 3) regulations on the duty to label harmful substances. This does not comply with the purpose of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, the Constitution of South Korea, and international human rights conventions that stipulate the protection of workers and responsibilities of the nation. Therefore, the NHRC recommended that the right to know and safety of workers should be widely guaranteed by strengthening regulations in order to expand the responsibilities of the nation and management.
