▲ 12 organizations in the field of labor safety and health including the Wonjin Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health and the Work & Heath hold a forum on '2017 Workers' Health Right' on February 3 in Seoul.(Kim Bong-seok)
Professor Park Doo-yong of Hansung University raised in his presentation at the forum that an independent and specialized government body should be established to deal with the safety related matters for the purpose of protecting people's lives and safeguarding the public safety.
He also suggested that the prosecutors' office duty system should be revamped to enable other prosecutors, instead of current public security prosecutors, to take charge of the cases of industrial accidents, and labor inspectors(industrial safety inspectors) should be promoted to the labor safety police with the strengthened right to interrogate the cases.
Pointing out a structural problem in the market economy where companies produce dangers to which the public are exposed and victimized, Professor Park stressed the need of changes in the current system to 1) regulate the producers of dangers directly or indirectly through an overhaul of laws, institutions and government organizations, 2) keep the power balance between the danger producers and victims through mutual checks, and 3) establish a state system to relieve the victims in case of accidents.
reported by Kim Bong-seok
translated by Kim Sung-jin