SK Geo Centric's head office in Seoul / Korea Times file

By Park Jae-hyuk

Top executives of SK Geo Centric, an SK Innovation subsidiary producing petrochemical products, are likely to be punished for repeatedly violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, as the labor minister raised concerns over repeated industrial accidents at the company's workplace, according to industry officials, Tuesday.

Last Wednesday, an explosion occurred at SK Geo Centric's polymer factory in Ulsan, injuring seven workers. Most of the wounded are said to have suffered burns on over 80 percent of their bodies.

Four months earlier, two workers died from a fire in a toluene storage tank in SK Geo Centric's Ulsan factory. In addition, the recent accident happened only 30 minutes after prosecutors and the police had left the factory, following their inspection of the company's safety measures so as to prevent the recurrence of accidents similar to the previous one.

A fire burns after an explosion at SK Geo Centric's polymer factory in Ulsan, Aug. 31. Newsis

A day after the explosion, Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik expressed serious concerns over consecutive similar accidents at the same workplace. The labor ministry also ordered SK Geo Centric to suspend factory operations.

"The minister called for a thorough investigation into the cause of the latest accident, in order to come up with fundamental measures to prevent the recurrence of similar accidents," the labor ministry said in a press release. "In addition, he ordered the ministry officials to review whether the Serious Accidents Punishment Act would be applied to the company's chief manager."

The act, which took effect in January, states that the owner or chief manager of a company can be sent to jail if a serious industrial accident occurs at a worksite where the company has not taken sufficient safety precautions. According to the law, a serious industrial accident refers to an accident that kills at least one worker, a single accident that causes injuries requiring at least six months of medical treatment to at least two workers or an occupational disease caught by at least three workers within a year.

The Progressive Party urged the authorities in a statement last Thursday to punish the employer of the injured SK Geo Centric workers.

"In order to fundamentally prevent serious industrial accidents, strong punishments should be imposed on employers who violate the Serious Accidents Punishment Act," the party said.

In response, SK Geo Centric CEO Na Kyung-soo and executives held a press conference last Friday to apologize to the victims of Wednesday's explosion.

"We sincerely apologize to the workers injured in the recent accident and their families," Na said. "By organizing a safety advisory council including outside experts, we will come up with measures to prevent the recurrence of similar accidents."