The number of work-related deaths in South Korea dipped nearly 17 percent in 2014 from a year earlier due largely to government efforts to tighten control on workplace safety, the labor ministry said Monday.
A total of 756 workers died in industrial accidents last year, down 16.6 percent from the previous year, according to the ministry. Industrial accidents include falls, suffocation, fires, explosions and the leakage of chemical materials.
The construction industry posted the largest number of fall-related deaths with 22.5 percent, followed by manufacturing with 20.7 percent.
But service, forestry and other industries saw the number of work-related deaths surge 16.9 percent on-year to 21 last year.
The ministry attributed the overall fall in the number of deaths from industrial accidents to the imposition of tougher safety rules on accident-prone workplaces and harsher punishment for companies that report disasters.
“The government will further tighten its supervision of highly dangerous workplaces for the prevention of serious industrial disasters, including chemical accidents,” a ministry official said. (Yonhap)
