“Employing retiree’ experience for securing safety in construction site”

Recruiting OSH guardians from retirees with experience in the construction field
Patrol to secure safety in small and medium sized construction site

February 16, 2015

KOSHA invites ‘OSH Guardians in Construction Site’ of 2015 to put experience of safety in construction sites and to promote job creation for the elderly.

Targeting retirees with practical working experiences of safety in construction field, the ‘OSH Guardians in Construction Site’ will strengthen the safety level of small and medium sized construction sites whose management on safety could be weak and vulnerable as well as provide the retirees with opportunities of social activities.

The subject of recruitment is retirees aged 55 or more with working experience of construction site safety. KOSHA will select 200 retirees as OSH guardians of 2015. To prevent major accidents, the selected retirees will patrol small and medium sized construction sites costing less than 12 billion KRW (about 12 million USD) by checking whether the workers are wearing PPE and utilizing safety facilities or not. They will lead workplaces with vulnerable safety facilities to the promotion activities in collaboration with KOSHA and the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

Indeed, the number of industrial accident victims at construction site costing less than 12 billion KRW for the last 3 years is 62,156 accounting for 89.1 % of total number of 69,731.

KOSHA has run related systems since 2010. Last year, KOSHA conducted almost 50,000 times of patrols nationwide targeting small sized construction projects costing less than 5 billion KRW. The death toll of the construction sites costing less than 5 billion KRW shows decrease of 16 people year-on-year.

KOSHA expects that this year the ‘OSH Guardians in Construction Site’ movement will contribute to accident prevention at construction sites possessing high risk of occupational accidents as well.