Fire authorities continue rescue efforts at a collapsed quarry operated by Sampyo Industry in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, Feb.1. Korea Times file

Sampyo Industry CEO Lee Jong-shin

By Lee Kyung-min

Sampyo Industry is facing a full-scale investigation into the deaths of its workers; with company CEO Lee Jong-shin being booked for allegedly violating a new law governing industrial accidents, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Friday.

The mid-size construction arm of Sampyo Group became the first to face potential punishment under the law, which took effect Jan. 27, that imposes a minimum prison term of one year for company CEOs with regard to critical on-site industrial accidents including death.

Industry watchers are closely monitoring developments, since any penalty for Lee and the company will largely set the tone going forward concerning future violations of the much-dreaded law.

Two other construction firms have reported serious injuries of workers including death over the past few weeks.

The labor ministry is expected to look into four deaths and four injuries in an explosion at Yeocheon Naphtha Cracking Center (NCC) inside the Yeosu National Industrial Complex in South Jeolla Province, early Friday, the third critical industrial accident to date. The second one occurred at a construction site operated by Yojin Construction & Engineering, Feb. 8, when two workers died after falling off an elevator shaft under construction in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

Search and seizure

The ministry said Lee faces charges of failing to institute company-wide efforts to identify workplace risk factors and subsequent prevention measures, compounded further by a lack of safety manuals despite an immediate and impending threat of harm.

Three dozen ministry officials searched the firm's headquarters in Seoul, and seized physical evidence including computer hard disks related to the death of three workers in a Jan. 29 collapse of a quarry operated by the firm in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province.

The ministry is expected to intensify the probe into the symbolic first case, as implied by Friday's strengthened search with digital forensic experts. That inspection came just about a week after the ministry booked an on-site supervisor at the firm's Yangju office following a search of the provincial office and offices of Sampyo's partner firms, Jan. 31.

It remains to be seen whether a court will convict Lee following further investigation by prosecutors and indictment. Sampyo Industrial has sought the counsel of Kim & Chang and Lee & Ko, two of the largest local law firms.

Meanwhile, Sampyo Industry is among 19 makers of remicon, or ready-mixed concrete, which were fined a combined 13.1 billion won ($10.9 million) for price fixing as well as collusion to control market supply between 2013 and 2021. They account for 80 percent of the market in Gyeonggi Province.

The Fair Trade Commission said Sampyo was fined 1.24 billion won, the third-largest amount after Shinsung Concrete industrial (1.9 billion won) and Eugene Corp. (1.8 billion won).