You take a whole new look at our society upon learning that the management at the manufacturing company where those Thai women were working knew that Normal-Hexane levels were over allowed limits for nine months and still had them use it as a washing agent, because it proves the general belief that foreign migrant workers are not seen as people.
When they knew for nine months what the results would be when a poisonous material controlled by law is used at levels over the legal limit it is more than just an accidental violation, it is criminal activity that must be strictly punished. Even after the fact the migrant workers ended up with their lower bodies paralyzed, the management distorted the facts, saying Normal-Hexane had been replaced with an environmentally-friendly washing agent because there was a risk it could be highly flammable in response to static electricity. As soon as the results of a survey of a working environment are complete, the employer must inform all employees of those results and report them to the authorities. Particularly when harmful substances are found to have exceeded legal exposure levels, that report is supposed to include details of how improvements were made or what improvements are planned.
The problem is that the Labor Ministry, which is responsible for assuring the maintenance of safety in the workplace, only sent a government supervisor to the company in question 11 months after it received the proper reports. The ministry says it judged levels to be within the legal limit after it considered the margin of error, and that it was unable to grasp the situation because the Thai workers who had become addicted to the chemicals at the company had died, but that is nothing but an excuse that is forgetful of what the ministry's duty is. Judging things to be safe because of the "margin of error" was problematic enough; is it not the rightful work of the Labor Ministry to judge levels to be over the limit based on that "margin of error" when levels are just under what is legal?
Having already suggested this whole incident be used as the starting point for putting and end to "Ugly Korea," we agree with Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan's demand for comprehensive measures to deal with this "loss of national image." There is something the government needs to be doing before it even starts working on any "comprehensive measures." It needs to hold the Labor Ministry responsible for its negligence.
The Hankyoreh, 19 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Labor Ministry Negligent in Normal-Hexane Case |
