“Outsourcing Danger”

[Anchor Lead]

A young man in his early 20s who had just begun working at a small plating company died after inhaling a toxic chemical. Critics say the practice of "outsourcing danger" in which dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs are relegated to subcontractors has claimed the life of another young worker.​
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[Pkg]

A young worker was found unconscious at this plating company on May 28th. Apparently, he had inhaled hydrogen cyanide during a plating job. The young man, who suffered extensive damage in his lungs and brain, died on Monday, three weeks after the accident.

[Soundbite] (Mother of the Dead Worker) : "I was in shock when I saw him, so I just cried holding on to his head. The doctor told me he was unconscious because his brain was dead."

The young man was originally assigned to packaging, but was told on the day of the accident to do the dangerous work without any prior safety training or protective gear. In the past three years, more than 80 workers have died from handling toxic substances. In addition, roughly 110 people are still in treatment. A few years ago, Jeon Jeong-hoon ended up with a serious vision impairment while working at a third-level subcontracting company of Samsung Electronics. But he still hasn't received an apology from the principal contractor. Samsung Electronics said that the subcontractor should be held accountable for the accident.

[Soundbite] Jeon Jeong-hoon(Methanol Inhalation Victim) : "There was no apology. They want to make this go away, but they haven't contacted me yet."

In the last 19th National Assembly session, a bill was tabled to ban companies from outsourcing plating and other jobs involving dangerous substances and toughening the prime contractor's accountability in order to prevent such accidents, but the bill is still pending in the National Assembly. A motion with the same objective and the government's revised bill have also been tabled at this National Assembly, but the lawmakers still haven't done anything to pass the bill.