Question: Will you tell our readers about major events to mark the 50th anniversary of the introduction of industrial accident compensation insurance?
Answer: The MEOL and the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service (COMWEL) jointly held a ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the introduction of industrial accident compensation insurance at COEX in Seoul on July 1. Representatives of labor and management sides and several walks of life were on hand at the event reaffirmed the significance of the introduction of industrial accident compensation insurance. The event also served as an opportunity to give words of encouragement and present awards to those who have contributed to the development of industrial accident compensation insurance.
Among the 43 award winners, the coveted Order of Service Merit, Red Stripe, went to Prof. Park Soo-kyung, of Daejin University, in recognition of his meritorious contribution to the development of industrial accident compensation insurance. President Choi Byung-soon of the Korea Occupational Lung Disease Research Institute was honored with the Industrial Service Medal.
Ex-Minister of Employment and Labor Phang Ha-nam, in his commemorative speech at the event, said he lauded labor and management’s endless passion and support for the development of industrial accident compensation insurance. He also stressed the evolution of the industrial accident compensation insurance system in keeping with social changes by firming up the protection of the underprivileged.
In the meantime, the COMWEL also held a ceremony to declare its vision, pledging to offer better industrial accident compensation insurance services.
In December, a seminar will take place to mark the 50th anniversary of the introduction of industrial accident compensation insurance. Industrial accident compensation insurance experts and working-level officials have been operating a forum on how to evolve industrial accident compensation insurance to meet current needs and industrial accident victims’ demands. The seminar is designed to unveil the outcome of research on industrial accident compensation insurance, seek the views of labor and management, and reach a consensus on the right direction of how to develop the industrial accident compensation insurance system.
Q: Will you elaborate on the introduction and development of industrial accident compensation insurance?
A: The industrial accident compensation insurance system made its debut on July 1, 1964 when the nation’s industrialization was accelerated. The system backed the nation’s explosive economic growth by guaranteeing industrial accident victims’ medical care and income and minimizing employers’ risks.
When the industrial accident compensation insurance system was introduced in 1964, the system covered only workers at mining and manufacturing sites. The system was expanded to include all worksites with one or more employees across the nation in July 2000, so currently, 15.35 million employees working at 1.98 million worksites are covered by the industrial accident compensation insurance system. A total of 4.45 million workers have benefited from the industrial accident compensation insurance system over the past 50 years and insurance payments have surpassed 56 trillion won. The number of insurance benefits has risen from six to 10, the coverage period of medical care benefits has expanded from 11 days to four or more days, and temporary disability benefits have increased from 60 percent of a workers’ normal wage to 70 percent, thus developing the insurance to international standards.
Business areas of industrial accident compensation insurance have expanded from workers’ compensation insurance’s medical care and benefits to rehabilitation programs allowing workers’ swift return to work and society and welfare programs, including support for workers’ establishment of start-up businesses.
In 2001, the government established a five-year rehabilitation program development plan to form an implementation mechanism for rehabilitation programs ranging from medical care to occupational and social rehabilitation services. Currently, rehab services are tailored to meet customers’ needs are offered in a timely fashion after a rehab plan is drawn up at the time of initial medical care. Manpower specializing in the provision of rehab services is also being nurtured. These efforts have paid off: industrial accident victims’ return to society has been shortened from 179.9 days in 2010 to 159.4 days in 2013, while the numbers of accident victims returning to work has increased from 48.7 percent in 2010 to 50.9 percent in 2013.
Q: Will you touch on the future direction of the industrial accident compensation insurance system?
A: The system now has to further evolve to protect more people from industrial accidents in line with the current times, such as the diversifying of employment types, emergence of new occupational diseases, and a low-birth rates and aging society.
Coverage for self-employed people and those working at special work sites vulnerable to industrial accidents has been expanded to benefit from the industrial accident compensation insurance. Currently, people working at six special work sites, including insurance planners, golf caddies, and home-school materials teachers, have been covered by the insurance, and we plan to expand the coverage for those at work at six special work sites with the pending outcomes of a fact-finding survey.
Discussions between labor and management will begin next year after a commissioned survey is conducted in the second half of 2014 on how to cover industrial accident victims commuting from home to work or vice versa.
Standards on how to determine work-related industrial accidents need to be revamped continuously along with the strengthening of medical services of industrial accident victims. New occupational diseases will be determined in accordance with changes of the industrial environment, and insurance coverage of work-related industrial accidents will have to be improved. Hospitals for industrial accident victims will be constructed to conduct R&D activities on patients with serious incurable diseases and to provide services tailored to meet industrial accident victims’ needs.
We’re striving to make industrial accident compensation insurance the nation’s universal and representative insurance in the interest of those who work at industrial worksites.
Q: Will you touch on the latest industrial accident trends and the direction of policies to prevent industrial accidents?
A: Comprehensive countermeasures against industrial accidents, including those announced in September 2013 and April 2014, and intensive surveillance from high-risk worksites have led to a reduction in the occurrence of industrial accidents, although many workers still die of accidents. This situation is attributable to a combination of companies’ insufficient safety-related investments, expanded outsourcing, low awareness toward safety, and a lack of worksite safety manpower.
First of all, we plan to ramp up our capacity to prevent industrial accidents with a focus on surveillance, technological guidance, and financial support at such highly hazardous worksites as large-sized construction sites and those requiring process safety management. Given the fact that industrial accidents take place with many subcontractors, institutional improvement will be made in a way that contractors’ responsibility toward safety and health can be beefed up by expanding the scope of work in which contractors and subcontractors are required to accept joint responsibility.
Our ministry will strive to enhance worksite alerts against industrial accidents by strengthening administrative and criminal punishment against violators of the Act on Occupation Safety and Health. We’ll do our utmost to make an institutional improvement in a continuous way so that an environment for complying with safety regulations can be created and to gradually increase safety inspection manpower at worksites. The government and economic organizations plan to join forces in giving guidance to corporate investment in safety and expanded safety inspection manpower and by monitoring developments.
Q: Will you explain the plans you have to spread safety awareness across all work areas?
A: The reality is that large-sized companies are engulfed with big industrial accidents due to a failure in compliance with safety regulations, such as the release of hydrofluoric acid at a Samsung Electronics plant.
In this regard, the top four safety codes of conduct, having a big impact on the prevention of industrial accidents and proving to be handy and practical at worksites, has been designated and distributed. We conduct safety campaigns in cooperation with the Ministry of Security and Public Admini-stration, and safety-related organizations and supply leaflets and posters related to compliance with safety codes of conduct to worksites across the nation. Efforts to promote awareness toward safety will be reinforced through media outlets, outside advertisements, SNS, and other new media.
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