Shipbuilding is a key industry that plays an important role in the South Korean economy. As of 2024, shipbuilding exports are expected to reach USD 25.63 billion annually, with 8,403 workplaces and approximately 136,000 workers involved in shipbuilding and repair. In recent years, orders from domestic shipyards have been steadily increasing, with the three major shipbuilders (HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries) focusing on large, high-value-added vessels such as LNG carriers. As of 2024, Korean shipbuilders have received orders for 250 vessels totaling 10.98 million CGT1), or 17% of the world's total.2)

The Korean shipbuilding industry is characterized by a multi-level subcontracting structure. Large shipbuilders (prime contractors) outsource most of the production process to subcontractors, who in turn outsource work to secondary subcontractors or individual laborers. This multi-layered employment relationship allows prime contractors to maintain a structure that reduces costs and avoids liability for safety incidents through 'outsourcing of risks,' which is the transfer of dangerous tasks to subcontractors or individual workers.

Subcontractors are forced to compete on a lowest-bid basis for contracts with prime contractors, resulting in lower wages for subcontracted workers and an environment that prioritizes speed of work under pressure to cut costs and short-term contracts. As a result, the incidence of occupational accidents remains high, and fatalities, especially from serious accidents, are mostly concentrated among subcontracted workers.

In fact, the number of industrial accidents in the shipbuilding and repair industry has been steadily increasing, from 2,492 in 2020 to 3,336 in 2022 and 3,754 in 2023. The number of fatalities was 17 in 2020, 12 in 2021, 11 in 2022, 9 in 2023, and 24 in 2024, of which about 80% were subcontracted workers.3)