[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] Another worker death accident has occurred at Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors plants.

Following the accident at Kia's Gwangju plant on May 16 in which a worker in his 40s was caught in a machine transporting a finished vehicle and died, the two companies' plants have been experiencing a series of serious accidents in recent years, including entrapment, falls, and suffocation.

Although it is a job that boasts an annual salary in the hundreds of millions, to the point that it is called a 'new production job,' it is pointed out that backward and repetitive industrial accidents are still rampant in the field.

In fact, from 2019 to June 2023, a total of 2,061 industrial accident casualties occurred at Hyundai and Kia factories. Of these, 28 people lost their lives, and an average of 412 people were injured or became ill each year.

In July 2023, one person died after being caught in an engine heat treatment facility at Hyundai Motor Company's Ulsan plant, and in October of the same year, another person died in a container fire at Kia Motors' Gwangmyeong plant.

In November 2024, a carbon monoxide leak occurred in the chamber room of Hyundai Motor Company's Ulsan plant, causing three researchers to suffocate to death, and in May 2025, another person died after being caught in a machine transporting a finished vehicle at Kia Motors' Gwangju plant.

Fatal accidents are not the only problem. There are also many occupational diseases such as hand entrapment in machinery, accidents caused by being crushed by heavy parts, noise-induced hearing loss, and occupational blood cancer. In the Ulsan plant, 2,515 people were diagnosed as noise-induced hearing loss patients over the past five years, and four painting workers at the Jeonju plant developed blood cancer due to exposure to hazardous substances such as benzene and formaldehyde.

What is the cause of these repeated major disasters?

First, the risks of old equipment and automated systems are pointed out. Recent accidents often occur due to unexpected machine operation or lack of safety devices in sections where automated machines and workers work together simultaneously. In the 2023 Kia Gwangmyeong plant accident, temporary equipment was used instead of a regular lift in the process of removing a 500 kg electric vehicle battery.

It is not uncommon for safety rules to not be followed properly and equipment shutdown procedures to be omitted.

The safety blind spot of the subcontracting structure is also serious. 70% of the industrial accident deaths at Hyundai Motor Group are workers belonging to subcontractors. The general contractor passes the responsibility for safety management to the subcontractor, and the subcontractor is weak in safety management due to lack of manpower and budget. In fact, during the fall accident at the construction site of Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan electric vehicle plant, the construction responsibility was repeatedly passed on to the subcontractor.

Productivity pressure and workforce structure are also problems. The number of parts for electric vehicles has decreased compared to internal combustion engines, resulting in workforce reductions, and excessive workloads are being placed on the remaining workforce. The wage system, which is centered on performance pay, is filled with 40% of the annual salary of 96 million won as performance pay and overtime pay. 12-hour shifts and 60 hours of overtime per month are routine, but fatigue and danger accumulate on site.

Another problem is that legal punishment is ineffective. Even after the Serious Disaster Punishment Act was implemented in January 2022, 23 people died in the Hyundai Motor Group, but not a single case was prosecuted. In 2024 alone, 62 cases were found to be in violation of the Industrial Safety and Health Act (OSHA), but the fines were less than 500 million won.

The workers on site complain, “We get paid 10 million won a month, but we go to dangerous sites every day.” Shift work, frequent overtime, failure to install safety devices, and skipping equipment shutdowns are all ‘customs’ on site. There is also testimony that “the general contractor supervisor knows that safety devices are not installed, but urges us to ‘quickly finish it. ’”

Experts point out that Hyundai Motor Group's safety budget is less than 0.3% of sales, and that safety still takes a backseat to technological innovation.

Kim Cheol-jung, an industrial safety expert, said, “Hyundai and Kia Motors are actively investing in cutting-edge facilities and technology, but safety investment is being pushed back. It will be difficult to reduce industrial accidents without responsible safety management by large companies and substantial reinforcement of the responsibility of primary contractors.”

Democratic Party lawmaker Roh Woong-rae also emphasized, “The root cause is the culture of treating workers like parts. The Serious Accident Punishment Act has been rendered powerless for large corporations. The government and the National Assembly should take steps to implement effective punishment and improve the system.”

The solutions being proposed include direct safety management by the head office, standardization of subcontractor equipment and processes, introduction of a real-time AI risk detection system, reform of the performance-based pay system to reflect safety indicators in salary evaluations, and strong legal punishment for companies that cause major accidents. However, for Hyundai Motors, which has enormous power and capital, these are just empty words. Some even say that it is more accurate to say that they know the solution but have no will to implement it.

A 'hundreds of millions of won' is just the price of long hours of dangerous labor, and true 'new production jobs' are completed when safety is guaranteed. If Hyundai and Kia, the symbol of technological innovation and the pride of Korean manufacturing, want to remove the stigma of 21st century industrial accidents, it is time to put safety at the forefront of management.