KOSHA Strives to Lower
Industrial Accident Rate
to Level of Advanced Countries

Expects the Seoul Declaration to serve as a new impetus to promote occupational safety and health globally

Noh Min-ki, president of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA), said the advancement of Korean society depends on how much occupational safety and health is secured.
Noh said in an interview with NewsWorld, "Korea aims to join the ranks of advanced countries. It is important for the nation to promote a better quality of life through advancement and economic growth, but the more important thing we should do is to become a full-fledged advanced country enough to fully preserve the integrity of every human life. How much our occupational safety and health is secured can tell how far our society has advanced." "In a word, Korea has a stark situation when it comes to industrial accidents: 90,147 workers sustain injuries and 2,406 of those people die annually. Economic losses stemming from industrial accidents were estimated at more than 16 trillion won per year. It means that economic losses caused by industrial accidents are more than 60 times as high as those caused by labor disputes.
To make matters worse, the rate of industrial accidents, which hovered at a range of 3 percent in the 1980s, had sharply declined to 0.7 percent in recent years. The problem is that the rate of 0.7 percent has remained unchanged for the past decade,"he said.
Noh said KOSHA is striving to lower Korea's industrial accident rate of 0.7 percent to the levels of advanced countries.
"Like the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development that served as an opportunity for countries across the world to recognize the significance of environmental protection, we expect the 2008 Seoul Declaration to serve as a new impetus to promote occupational safety and health across the globe,"he said. The following are excerpts of his interview.
Question: KOSHA is responsible for ensuring occupation safety and health. Will you tell our readers about its specific roles?
Answer: Safety and health at work makes our workplaces healthy, safe and agreeable.
Labor supervisors at the Ministry of Labor Affairs supervise whether companies follow related laws and regulations and punish violators. KOSHA is responsible for providing information, technology guidance and financial support if necessary so that workplaces can engage in safety and health activities.
KOSHA's services for preventing industrial accidents include the provision of technology designed to prevent industrial accidents and occupational diseases; the provision of financial support for improving the environment of workplaces; and inspection and certification of safety and health items to ensure fundamental safety.
Q: Will you speak about the current status of industrial accidents taking place in Korea?
A: In a word, Korea has a stark situation when it comes to industrial accidents: 90,147 workers sustain injuries and 2,406 of those people die annually.
Economic losses stemming from industrial accidents were estimated at more than 16 trillion won per year. It means that economic losses caused by industrial accidents are more than 60 times as high as those caused by labor disputes.
To make matters worse, the rate of industrial accidents, which hovered at a range of 3 percent in the 1980s, had sharply declined to 0.7 percent in recent years. The problem is that the rate of 0.7 percent has remained unchanged for the past decade. It is impossible to make a major comparison due to different calculation measurements. However, Korea had 1.1 deaths caused by industrial accidents per 10,000 people in 2007, some two times to 15 times as high as those of advanced countries: 0.53 in the United States in 2004, 0.3 in Japan in 2004 and 0.07 in the United Kingdom in 2005. Korea had the highest death rate among OECD member countries.
Korea needs to lower its industrial accident rate to the levels of advanced countries.
Q: Industrial accidents have not shrunk. What steps are you taking to cope with the situation?
A: KOSHA has adopted three strategies to cut down on industrial accidents. First, it has come up with a hub strategy. With KOSHA playing a leading role as a hub, all sectors of society, including management, labor, local communities and civic experts put their hearts and souls into an omnidirectional approach. Secondly, we have a scientific approach: examining the causes of industrial accidents and developing technologies in order to effectively reduce the industrial accident rate. Thirdly, KOSHA has a localization strategy: implementing steps to prevent industrial accidents that correspond to the characteristics of each region by mobilizing all possible resources according to their business type and employment structure rather than resorting to a centralized top-down method.
Q: We have learned that KOSHA is redoubling efforts to prevent the top three industrial accidents. Will you specifically address them?
A: At workplaces, the top industrial accidents, which are simple falls, crushing by such things as presses and serious falls at construction sites, account for almost half of the total number of industrial accidents. In 2007, 90,147 victims suffered from industrial accidents, of which 43,946 were caused by the top-three types of accidents. Simple falls caused 16,231 industrial accidents, claiming 48 lives, following by crushing, which caused 15,881 accidents and claimed 150 lives, and serious falls, which caused 11,834 accidents and resulted in 418 deaths.
The top three industrial accidents can be prevented by managers'concern and workers'carefulness, requiring neither advanced safety technology nor costing much money.
KOSHA is striving to halve the number of the top three industrial accidents in the next five years. To this end, we plan to set aside more budgetary money to prevent industrial accidents at 220,000 workplaces that we deem are vulnerable to the top three industrial accidents, visit 90,000 workplaces to provide technology guidance and provide technology support through such indirect methods as education and materials provision for 130,000 work sites.
Q: Korea successfully hosted the XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in Seoul this past June, dubbed the "Industrial Safety Olympics."Will you comment on the achievements of the congress?
A: The Industrial Safety Olympics are held every three years. The XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work was held in Seoul for a four-day run from June 29 through July 2 for the second time in Asia following the one in India.
Government officials in charge of occupational safety and health, managers of multinational corporations, labor representatives and experts from around the world got together to introduce their country's policies, systems and excellent cases, share the development trends of technologies on safety and health at work and form a network of related experts.
About 4,500 people from 121 countries participated in the Seoul Congress, far more than the XVII World Congress in Orland, California, that drew 2,607 people from 112 countries. The Seoul Congress was the largest ever with 466 people presenting theses during 81 sessions.
In particular, representatives of labor, management and government from across the world adopted the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work.
Q: Will you tell us the significance of the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work?
A: The Seoul Declaration is a global pact on safety and health at work in which each segment of society, including government, management and labor pledged to spearhead their responsibilities and duties in making workplaces across the world safe and agreeable.
First, it declares that securing safety and health at work is the workers'principal human right. Second, it confirms the fact that corporate investments into occupational safety and health could return financial benefits beyond their fame and social contribution. Third, it declares that all members of society, including the government and public sectors as well as management, labor and civic experts, share the responsibility to ensure occupational safety and health and it contains actions each member should carry out.
Following the Seoul Declaration, each country is required to establish its own plans to translate the declaration into action and report the outcomes of the process by 2011 when the next World Congress is to be convened.
Like the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development that served as an opportunity for countries across the world to recognize the significance of environmental protection, we expect the 2008 Seoul Declaration will serve as a new impetus to promote occupational safety and health across the globe.
Q: KOSHA hosted the 1st Global Forum for the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work. Will you introduce the forum and the significance of your organization's hosting of the forum?
A: Representatives from such international organizations as the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Social Security Association (ISSA) as well as those from labor, management and government assembled at the forum held in Seoul on Sept. 10 and presented theses and held discussions on each party's responsibilities and roles in the Seoul Declaration.
Major issues of the discussions were as follows: Each international organization is urged to expand the application of occupational safety and health standards and encourage each state's application of occupational safety and health management systems. Labor should reconfirm occupational safety and health as the workers'principal human rights. Speakers talked about the need for labor's active participation in establishing policies on occupational safety and health and translating them into action as well evaluating the corporate role in safety and health at work. They discussed management's role in promulgating and operating high standards on occupational safety and health as well as ways of invigorating labor representatives'participation in occupational safety and health. The government side said it will aggressively participate in global collaboration to proliferate the Seoul Declaration in connection with its establishment of five-year industrial accident prevention plans and faithfully put it into action.
The purpose of the Global Forum was to recall the spirit of the Seoul Declaration. The representatives of each segment of society got together again at a place following the XVIII World Congress to reconfirm their determination to specifically translate the Seoul Declaration into action and to present detailed programs.
Q: What is KOSHA doing to specifically put into action the Seoul Declaration?
A: KOSHA plans to continuously carry out projects so that countries from across the world can proliferate the purpose of the Seoul Declaration in cooperation with the ILO and ISSA and make concerted efforts to establish an occupational safety and health culture.
An international action committee, a national committee and working-level action implementation corps will be formed in an initial effort to proliferate the Seoul Declaration. We strive for a shared consensus among national and social member parties by holding discussions like the first Global Forum for the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work. KOSHA plans to establish the planned museum on the declaration and stage diverse activities including a signature drive among labor, management and government and the posting of information related to the declaration on the on-line dictionary and encyclopedia Web sites, including Wikipedia. Among others efforts, KOSHA is striving to lower Korea's industrial accident rate of 0.7 percent to the levels of advanced countries.
Q: Will you comment on any suggestions to prevent industrial accidents?
A: Korea aims to join the ranks of advanced countries. It is important for the nation to promote a better quality of life through advancement and economic growth, but the most important thing we should do is to become a full-fledged advanced country enough to fully preserve the integrity of every human life.
How much our occupational safety and health is secured can tell how far our society has advanced.
In an effort to prevent industrial accidents, we cannot depend only on the roles of the public sector, including KOSHA. All members of society, including management, labor and NGOs, should play their respective parts after recognizing the importance of occupational safety and health, as the principal tenets of the Seoul Declaration. nw

(left) KOSHA President Noh Min-ki speaks at the opening ceremony of the XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in this past June. Participants announced the Seoul Declaration after wrapping up the conference.

KOSHA President Noh has an interview with NewsWorld.