Between 2019 and 2020, there were four consecutive worker deaths at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Ulsan Shipyard. In response to these incidents, the safety officers of both the primary contractor and subcontractors were sentenced to suspended prison terms and fines in the second trial.
On February 18, the Ulsan District Court’s Criminal Division 1 upheld the original verdict against HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Corporation and three division representatives for causing death by occupational negligence and violating the Industrial Safety and Health Act. They were sentenced to 6 to 8 months in prison, with 1 to 2 years of probation, and fined between 7 million and 50 million KRW.
The appellate court dismissed both the defendants’ and the prosecution’s appeals, confirming that the initial judgment had no factual errors and that the sentences were appropriate. These three defendants were accused in connection with multiple serious accidents that occurred at the Ulsan shipyard and the ship equipment division between September 2019 and May 2020.
Specific incidents include: in September 2019, a subcontractor employee in his 60s at the Offshore Engineering Department was crushed to death by a temporary steel plate (weighing 18 tons) during dismantling; in February 2020, another subcontractor employee in his 60s fell 17 meters to his death at an LNG ship truss assembly site; in April of the same year, a regular employee of Hyundai Heavy Industries was crushed to death while aligning a door in the special ship workshop; and more than a month later, a subcontractor worker in his 30s suffocated to death due to argon gas while welding on the ship’s deck.
The prosecution alleged that Mr. A and other responsible individuals did not prepare work plans, install supports and fall protection nets, and did not conduct risk assessments before working in confined spaces, leading to the accidents. The first-instance court pointed out that although the accidents occurred due to negligence in safety responsibilities, the defendants formulated measures to prevent reoccurrence after the incidents and took into account the compensation wishes of the victims’ families, thus issuing a lenient sentence.
The appellate court upheld the first-instance verdict, confirming that the factual determinations were correct and the sentences appropriate. Additionally, regarding the argon gas suffocation incident, the court suggested improving relevant guidelines to specify that when welding pipes above a certain size, the likelihood of personnel entering the pipes is high, and thus they should be defined as confined spaces.
After the appellate ruling was announced, the Ulsan headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the Hyundai Heavy Industries branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, and the Ulsan Movement Headquarters for Creating a World Without Major Disasters held a press conference in front of the Ulsan District Court. They criticized that although the first-instance verdict found all defendants guilty, it issued lenient punishments for various reasons, failing to fully consider the seriousness of multiple major accidents at the same workplace, and thus did not lawfully aggravate the punishments. They expressed disappointment that the appellate ruling did not transition from the lenient first-instance verdict to a more severe ruling reflecting judicial justice.