□ The 49th Occupational Safety and Health Week was held by the Ministry of Employment and Labor of Korea (MOEL) and Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) from July 4th to 8th at Coex. This 5-day event was hosted in a very timely manner as the public interest in workers' safety and health protection has picked up due to recent industrial accidents.

* The first Monday and the first week of July are designated as "OSH day", and "OSH  week" respectively, and various OSH events are hosted every year in the first week of July.

ㅇ This year, organizers prepared Awarding medals for accident prevention activity; Korea International Safety & Health Show, International OSH Symposium; Presentation of Best Practices on accident prevention.

ㅇ The event allowed participants to figure out where the OSH status of  Korea is, to share state-of-the-art OSH knowledge and information, and to find out the way to practice OSH activities in the industries.

ㅇ Under the catch phrase of this year, "Together Safety, Happier Korea"*, participants enjoyed safety lectures by OSH experts, a play about safety, and lots of event about safety at the venue full of valuable information.

* As OSH is common value to share for all people, we should enhance awareness on safety and disseminate safety culture together to make Korea happier.

□ The 49th OSH week starts with the [OSH Week Commemorative Ceremony] on July 4, the first day of the week. At the commemorative ceremony, Orders were awarded to those who contributed to make workplace healthier and safer. At the [Korea International Safety & Health Show] (KISS), held from July 4 to July 7, more than 200 companies from 15 countries displayed about 10,000 OSH products and Smart safety systems such as Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual reality.

ㅇ At the show, persons concerned in OSH could directly read the latest trend in product safety and state-of-the-art technology. In addition, they could directly purchase safety-related goods required at the workplace through customized-goods consulting. 

□ At the International OSH Symposium, 27 seminars were given to share the latest issues such as major accident prevention, chemicals management, and workers' health protection. In addition, participants at the Best Practices Presentation on accident prevention shared valuable experience and tried to find out how to implement accident prevention in the field.

□ Director Shin Ki-chang of MOEL, at his commemorative speech, said "to create workplace where life and health of workers are cherished, harmonization and collaboration are required between policy making and inspection by MOEL, technical guidance and R&D by KOSHA, and OSH service by private accident prevention agencies. Employers, workers, OSH experts should cooperate".

ㅇ He highlighted that considering the current accident-prone circumstances among subcontracted workers, MOEL will improve system to strengthen responsibility of mother company with regard to accident prevention.

ㅇ "In line with that, to make the private agencies provide higher quality OSH service, we will strengthen responsibility of the agencies by conducting performance evaluation on them and opening the result of the evaluation." he added.