KILSH’s First Newsletter – Dec. 2024

Letter from the Editor

We will send you our newsletter every month from now on. We look forward to communicating our occupational safety and health activities and research well and connecting with you actively. 

Everyone in South Korea was horrified by the unconstitutional and unprecedented declaration of martial law by the incumbent president. The motion to impeach the president was passed by the National Assembly on 14 December, and now the Constitutional Court will decide on the case. The struggle to remove the president, who has endangered the people, and the struggle for workers’ rights and health will continue. 

Workers are constantly under a state of emergency. In June, 23 workers died in a fire at the Aricell battery factory, and two sacked workers from Korea Nitto Optical have been sitting on the roof of the factory since 8 January. Subcontracted workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering went on strike in 2022 to demand a collective agreement to raise their wages to a level that would make it difficult for them to make ends meet. The company (Hanwha Ocean) then filed a lawsuit against them, demanding 47 billion won (US$32,661) in compensation. A migrant worker who had lived in Korea for 26 years but had not been granted residency status, and who only obtained residency status after a difficult struggle, was killed in November, five months after obtaining a visa and eight months after joining the company, when he was crushed between a work vehicle and equipment. In the midst of this state of martial law and impeachment, we have no choice but to think about workers’ rights, workers’ health rights and the right to survive.

Our first newsletter includes an article on the Aricell battery fire disaster that killed 23 people in June, 22 of whom were Chinese nationals. It also includes a study conducted by KILSH on the use of toilets by female workers in the workplace. The study found that there were not enough toilets in the workplace for female workers to use freely and that there was not enough time to go to the toilet. We hope that our activities will help to ensure that safety is maintained in lesser-known industries and that all workers are guaranteed adequate working hours and rest periods.

We hope you will continue to take an interest in our newsletter. Please pass it on to others.

If you have any questions, please reply to this email.

Thank you.

In-depth review

Battery manufacturing plant fire disaster – Aricell story 

It was 24 June when the deadly Aricell battery plant fire that killed 23 people – 18 of them migrant workers. The tragedy has been identified as South Korea’s “deadliest industrial disaster for migrant workers.” [3] On 13 August, more than 50 days after the tragedy, the South Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the results of a special work inspection of Aricell, which included 65 violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, as well as safety measures for migrant workers. The results of the investigation by the police were announced on 23 August. The police investigation revealed that Aricell had committed various crimes against the Ministry of National Defense, including:

▲ rapidly increasing the battery defect rate and failing to take action against new defective types;

▲ using a large number of migrant workers while blatantly ignoring safety measures, such as stopping and improving the screening of thermoelectric cells; and

▲ switching samples, in order to meet the delivery date for military batteries.

The investigation by the Ministry of Employment and Labor confirmed some suspicions about Aricell’s illegal operation. The details surrounding the tragedy are slowly emerging, but the Aricell Committee Against Fatal Disasters is still fighting for the truth about the tragedy and calling for measures to prevent its recurrence.

Read more: https://kilsh.or.kr/?p=36101

KILSH’s studies

The Status of Female Workers Using Restrooms at Work and Effects on Health (2021)

Restroom use at work is not only a matter of dignity but also directly related to health. In addition, for women workers, the restroom is often an uncomfortable space that can raise security concerns. Nevertheless, restroom use is often reduced to a personnel issue and is not considered to be part of a healthy working environment. As a result, restroom use is often trivialized and problems are resolved through grievance procedures. Recently, problems related to women workers using the restroom have emerged in a variety of industries including construction, services, and manufacturing, among others.

There are 130,000 women workers in the construction industry in Korea, which accounts for 10% of the total workforce. However, problems surrounding restroom use among women workers have never been taken seriously. The restroom issue is also serious in the service industry where the proportion of women workers is high. According to a 2018 research study of working conditions and health effects in sales workers of department stores and duty-free shops, 60% of workers experienced not going to the restroom when they needed to. These workers experienced many disorders such as cystitis and musculoskeletal disorders. In fact, the incidence of cystitis was three times higher than normal. To complicate matters further, the regular workers’ union refused the transition of irregular workers to regular workers simply due to the lack of sufficient restrooms for female workers. The expectation was that the union would demand more restrooms for women workers, but instead they allowed poor restroom conditions so as not to accept promotion of irregular workers to regular workers.

Read more: https://kilsh.or.kr/?p=32347

About Kilsh(Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health)

KILSH is a public interest civil society group focusing on workers’ health and safety. We are working for healthy working conditions for all workers, and for workers to have greater autonomy in their workplaces. We meet and educate workers and trade unions on how to prevent occupational injuries and describe how to get involved in changing the working environment. 

We have worked on important issues such as musculoskeletal disorders, long working hours, overwork and mental illness. We have continued our work on workers’ health rights at small-sized businesses, female workers’ health, the climate crisis, the right to stop dangerous work and how risk assessment is conducted and used. These issues are described in our monthly magazine on occupational safety and health with different topics every month. Our translation team provides information about our activities in English.

Our webpage: https://kilsh.or.kr/en/