"The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the police investigation team in Gyeonggi Province are investigating to know when Samsung Electronics actually recognized the death of its workers at the firm's Giheung workplace," a ministry official said on Sept. 6.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics said that it has kept the industrial safety act and reported it the authorities after death.
According to Article 4-3 of the Enforcement Rules of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, "If a company find outs that a major disaster has occurred, it should report it to the head of the local Employment and Labor Administration immediately." A major disaster is when one person is killed or more than 10 people are injured at the same time.
Samsung claims that it reported the measure to Yongin Fire Station in Gyeonggi Province under the law when one of its workers died after taking action through its own rule.
However, if the probe showed that there was a big gap between the time of death of the patient and the time when Samsung contacted Yongin Fire Station, the problem would become serious.
Furthermore, Samsung Electronics blocked all outside contact for two hours before reporting the accident, Rep. Park Joo-min of the Minjoo Party of Korea told a supreme council meeting on Sept. 5.
The headquarters of the fire department in Gyeonggi Province was informed of Samsung Electronics' accident after hearing the information from other parties, and they made several phone calls to confirm the accident to Samsung Electronics, but it did not answer the phone.
Gyeonggi-do Governor Lee Jae-myung and Rep. Park stressed that it is natural to report the accident to 119 immediately. Accordingly, it should be dealt with by the Industrial Basic Act, other than the Industrial Safety and Health Act."
In 2013, Samsung Electronics also had four employees killed in a fire leak in Hwaseong. At that time, Samsung reported it to the public after 17 hours. It was criticized as a belated response.
