Fatal accident puts spotlight on bread factory

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Fatal accident puts spotlight on bread factory

Published: 17 Oct. 2022, 19:07 Updated: 17 Oct. 2022, 19:11

People pay their condolences to the 23-year-old worker who died while working at an SPL factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on Monday. [YONHAP]

SPC Group chairman Hur Young-in issued an apology Monday for a fatal accident that happened at an affiliate's bread factory, as an investigation began to see if the Serious Accidents Punishment Act was violated.

“I would like to express my deepest condolences to the bereaved family,” said Hur in a statement on Monday. "We will cooperate with the government investigation, and do our best to find the cause of the accident and prevent further ones from happening.”

A 23-year-old employee working at a bread making factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, owned by SPL, died Oct. 15 after getting caught in an industrial mixer. SPL is wholly owned by Paris Croissaint, a company wholly owned by Hur and his family.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor is currently investigating whether SPL violated the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

Under the act, owners of companies, managers and the corporation itself can be charged if they failed to properly implement safety practices and procedures and a casualty resulted from their negligence. The act covers businesses with 50 or more employees. Those found to have violated the act can be jailed for a year or more or fined up to 1 billion won ($696,000).

A total of 37 employees were injured while working at the same factory between 2017 and September, with 15 getting stuck in the factory’s machines. The ministry will look into whether safety measures were implemented or ignored.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) held a press conference Monday saying there were a lot of accidents at the Pyeongtaek factory in which the workers' aprons got caught in machines, but the company did nothing to solve the problem.

Lawmakers condemned the lack of safety measures at a parliamentary hearing on Monday.

Rep. Lee Eun-ju of the Justice Party said the factory’s mixer didn’t have a safety sensor, which stops the mixer when the lid is opened. Employees mixing sauces have to work in groups of two to prevent accidents based on company guidelines, but the victim was working alone at the time.

Kang Kyu-hyeong, head of KCTU's SPL branch, said it is hard for employees to physically be together when working in pairs because one person tends to work on the mixer and the other goes back and forth to get ingredients.

Regarding Rep. Lee's accusations, Ryu Kyung-hee, head of the ministry’s Industrial Accident Prevention and Inspection Policy Bureau, said, “There is a big chance that the company will be considered to have violated the [Serious Accidents Punishment] act.”

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]