Recent entrapment incidents at SPC Group's subsidiaries Shani and Auhome have raised serious concerns about safety management in the food industry. Both facilities have a history of similar accidents, prompting criticism that the companies' pledged measures to prevent recurrences are not being effectively implemented.
According to industry sources, on June 10, a Vietnamese migrant worker, identified as A, was injured when he became trapped in an automatic panning machine cylinder at the Shani factory in Daegu's Dalseong County. The automatic panning machine is used to align shaped bread dough on baking trays. A sustained serious injuries to his right arm and was transported to a hospital. Police are investigating the circumstances of the accident and whether there were violations of industrial safety and health laws.
This is not the first incident at an SPC subsidiary. In 2022, a worker in his 20s died after becoming trapped in a sauce mixer at the SPL factory in Pyeongtaek. In 2023, a worker in his 50s lost his life after being caught in a dough machine at the Shani factory in Seongnam. Additionally, in May of last year, a worker in his 50s died after becoming trapped in a conveyor belt at the SPC Samlip factory in Siheung. In April of this year, two employees at the same factory suffered finger amputations while performing parts replacement and foreign object removal tasks. Despite President Lee Jae-myung's visit to the Siheung factory last year, where he called for fundamental measures to prevent recurrences, similar accidents continue to occur.
The Food and Chemical Workers Union issued a statement on the same day, asserting, "Industrial accidents are recurring at SPC subsidiaries," and emphasized that the recent incident should not be attributed to language barriers or worker negligence. The union is demanding special negotiations with management, joint investigations into accidents, support for affected workers, expanded multilingual safety training, implementation of two-person work teams, and enhanced safety measures for hazardous machinery. They also called for thorough investigations and accountability for management from the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the police.
Earlier, on June 8, a worker from a subcontractor at Auhome's second factory in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, suffered serious injuries after becoming trapped in a conveyor belt while packaging products. The worker was rescued in a state of cardiac arrest and transported to a hospital, where he is currently in critical condition.
Auhome's CEO Kim Tae-won issued an apology, stating, "We deeply regret that an incident occurred in the workplace that should never happen. We will completely halt operations on the production line where the accident occurred and conduct urgent safety inspections across all facilities."
The issue is compounded by the fact that this factory also has a history of accidents. In April of last year, a worker died after becoming trapped in machinery on the fish cake production line, and in March, a foreign worker's arm was caught in machinery, leading to a police search of the facility.
Industry experts point to aging equipment, excessive operational demands focused on productivity, and inadequate safety training and oversight as chronic issues. They specifically highlight that despite the introduction of automated equipment, entrapment incidents continue to occur during cleaning, maintenance, and foreign object removal processes, indicating a need to redesign overall work procedures.
Industrial accidents are on the rise. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, 605 workers died from industrial accidents last year, an increase of 16 (2.7%) from the previous year (589). Falls accounted for the highest number of fatalities (249), followed by incidents involving being struck by or caught under objects, with 50 deaths resulting from machinery entrapment.
Lee Joo-hee, a professor of sociology at Ewha Womans University, stated, "Protecting workers' lives and safety is the most fundamental duty of a company. If a company cannot even fulfill this basic obligation repeatedly, society must send a more serious legal and social message about whether such a company deserves to exist."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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