'The risks are high, and uncertainties are many': Korean workplace accidents have claimed 1,500 lives since 2022

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'The risks are high, and uncertainties are many': Korean workplace accidents have claimed 1,500 lives since 2022

Published: 19 Aug. 2025, 07:00

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Workers operate at an apartment construction site in Seoul on Aug. 11, as the government begins a crackdown on illegal subcontracting at construction sites. [YONHAP]

Korea overhauled its workplace safety laws in 2022, threatening executives with at least a year in prison or fines of up to 1 billion won ($722,000) if workers died on the job. But since then, nearly 1,500 workers have been killed in serious industrial accidents up until last year — many of them at construction sites and most of them employed by subcontractors.

At one construction company, eight workers died in serious industrial accidents between 2022 and the second quarter of 2024. Half the deaths stemmed from falls. In April 2022, a worker struck by a wire rope fell to his death. In February 2024, a worker died while dismantling a safety net. Workers also died in October 2023 and March 2024 after falling through floor openings.

All eight fatalities involved subcontracted workers.

The JoongAng Ilbo obtained a list of companies and case details involving fatal accidents since the Serious Accidents Punishment Act took effect in 2022 through Rep. Kim So-hee of the People Power Party.

A total of 1,418 cases occurred during that period, claiming 1,490 lives.

Civic groups have demanded the release of company names, but the Ministry of Employment and Labor refused to provide them, citing the risk of influencing ongoing investigations and trials. The issue is currently under review in a second trial. The JoongAng Ilbo is reporting the cases with partial anonymization.

High recurrence in large-scale construction

Serious accidents repeatedly occurred at the same companies. The recurrence rate — excluding individual contractors — was 9.24 percent, according to the JoongAng Ilbo’s analysis. For construction firms with more than 50 employees or projects worth more than 5 billion won, the rate jumped to 27.9 percent.

This trend persists despite the introduction of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which carries penalties of at least one year in prison or fines of up to 1 billion won for business owners and executives. The data shows that large construction sites remain especially prone to repeat accidents.

“The high number of repeat accidents shows that companies are focusing more on seeking advice from big law firms to avoid punishment rather than investing in strengthening their safety and health capabilities,” Kim said.

“What’s needed is not harsher punishment but legal reforms that focus on prevention and improvement,” she said.

A safety law expert added that the law's effectiveness is limited.

“For the Serious Accidents Punishment Act to apply, the Occupational Safety and Health Act must first apply. But it has 674 rules, many of them ambiguous. Companies cannot realistically comply with them all, and the vague rules allow them to escape legal accountability,” the expert said.

“Each workplace should have essential guidelines that must be followed, and violations of those should be punished more severely. That would be more effective,” said Ham Byung-ho, a professor at Korea National University of Transportation.

Cranes operate at an apartment construction site in Seoul on Aug. 11 as the government begins a crackdown on illegal subcontracting at construction sites. [YONHAP]

Most repeat accidents affect subcontractors.

Nearly half all serious accidents — 44.78 percent — involved subcontracted workers. For repeat accidents, the share rose to 82 percent.

At one state-run company, four of five fatal accidents between 2023 and 2024 involved subcontractors. Three of the top-ranked construction firms also reported eight fatalities each during the same period, all of them subcontracted workers.

Prosecution data shows that 87.1 percent of all cases filed under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act since 2022 involved small- and medium-sized enterprises, and midsize companies accounted for 13.5 percent and large corporations only 8.1 percent. This has fueled calls to strengthen accountability for main contractors, while providing support measures for subcontractors and smaller firms.

“Large corporations increased safety spending after the Serious Accidents Punishment Act took effect, but small firms lack that capacity,” Ham said.

“Subcontractors, especially third-tier ones and below, still cut corners on safety to remain competitive. That’s why accidents persist in smaller workplaces. What’s needed is a support system, such as dispatching safety experts.”

Kim Ju-young, head of the Democratic Party’s task force on industrial accident prevention, and Park Hae-cheol, the task force’s secretary, listen to a briefing from officials during a visit to a DL Construction apartment construction site in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 14, where a worker recently died after a fall. [YONHAP]

Fatality rates double OECD average

The construction industry will determine whether serious accidents can be reduced in Korea. Construction accounted for four out of 10, or 39.7 percent, of all work-related deaths last year, according to the Labor Ministry.

In 2024, Korea's construction fatality rate stood at 1.59 — meaning 1.59 construction workers died for every 10,000 employed in the construction industry — double the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's average of 0.78 and the highest among the 10 largest economies.

The sector’s large role in Korea's economy — it makes up about 15 percent of GDP — contributes to the high number of deaths.

Experts argue that entrenched practices in the industry, including illegal subcontracting, lowest-cost bidding and pressure to shorten construction schedules, must be addressed.

“Construction work involves outdoor conditions, an aging work force, and complex project structures, and so the risks are high., and uncertainties are many. What’s needed is a safety system tailored to these industry characteristics,” said Choi Soo-young, a research fellow at the Construction & Economy Research Institute of Korea.

“To reduce accidents in Korea’s construction sector, the industry needs strategies to narrow the safety gap between construction and other sectors while the country as a whole needs a comprehensive strategy to raise overall workplace safety to advanced-economy levels,” Choi added.

Experts stressed that punishment alone cannot solve the problem without a broader consensus on social costs. They said Korea must recognize that longer construction periods and higher costs are inevitable if worker safety is to be guaranteed.

“Companies still boast about cutting project times,” Kim Sung-hee, a professor at Korea University's Labor Education & Research Institute, said. “For years, shorter timelines and lower costs were seen as competitive strengths. But without a shift to the idea that safety is competitiveness, companies cannot survive.”

“The Serious Accidents Punishment Act is not just a legal issue but one of social costs,” Yoon Dong-yeol, a business professor at Konkuk University, said. “Without public consensus to accept higher costs and longer timelines, serious accidents may temporarily decline but cannot be significantly reduced in the long term,” Yoon said.

“Advanced economies strengthened safety regulations decades ago. While that initially raised construction and manufacturing costs, it significantly reduced long-term social costs like compensation, medical expenses, production disruptions and reputational damage,” the professor added.

“Korea needs a social consensus that values life over cost and an institutional framework to share that burden.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM YEON-JOO, KIM WON [[email protected]]