Ministry of Labor judges Samsung Electronics' 'radiation exposure' as a serious accident...imposition of a fine

In May, it was confirmed that the Ministry of Employment and Labor judged two workers exposed to radiation at Samsung Electronics' Giheung plant as a serious accident.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor judged the accident as a serious accident under the Occupational Safety and Health Act with the advice of three medical-related academic societies and three law firms, and imposed a fine of 30 million won on Samsung Electronics for not reporting the occurrence of a serious accident on the 7th.

In the future, the Ministry of Labor will conduct a serious accident investigation and industrial safety and health supervision of Samsung Electronics to check for violations of the law.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of the Ministry of Labor judged the radiation burns suffered by the workers as injuries and requested a report on the occurrence of a serious disaster, but Samsung has countered by claiming that it is a disease, not an injury.

If two workers are not cured by the end of November, Samsung Electronics could be subject to an investigation into the Serious Accident Punishment Act, not the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The Enforcement Decree of the Industrial Safety and Health Act defines a disaster in which two or more injured persons who need medical care for more than three months at the same time as a 'critical disaster', but
This is because the
Critical Disaster Act specifies that a disaster in which two or more injured persons need treatment for more than six months is a 'critical industrial accident'.

Earlier on May 27, two workers who were repairing the radiation generating equipment were exposed to radiation because the protection system of the radiation generating equipment did not work properly at Samsung Electronics' Giheung plant.