June 2023 International Blog – Korea Industrial Safety Association
The rise of South Korea
South Korea’s inexorable rise over the last few decades has given it the world’s fourteenth
largest economy by GDP, with its most notable exports being electrical/electronic goods,
vehicles and ship-building. Perhaps due to impulsive neighbours, South Korea possesses
the sixth largest military in the world (just below the United Kingdom), but also projects
soft power through its “K-pop” culture of addictive music accompanied by slick
choreography. A well-educated workforce, and low state debt helped transform the
economy from a poor agricultural state during the 1960’s to the world’s eighth largest
exporter with GDP per capita close to, or even surpassing, Japan’s
A force to be reckoned with
Like many countries as they industrialise, South Korea determined to improve
occupational health & safety standards for its workforce. In January 2021, taking
inspiration from the UK’s Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 their
National Assembly launched South Korea’s Serious Accident Punishment Act.
Arinite reported on this in its November 2021 Blog, after South Korea’s second-largest
public broadcaster Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, visited the UK to learn about our
country’s expertise. TV Producer, Gina McDonald, interviewed a criminal Health & Safety Barrister, the Health & Safety Executive, a Health & Safety Professor at Loughborough University – and Arinite.
Can’t get enough
As the first country to industrialise, and therefore the first to introduce workplace health &
safety legislation backed up by rigorous enforcement, Great Britain’s experience is
admired around the world, and Arinite consultants respected for their international reach.
When Korea Industrial Safety Association (KISA) recently visited the UK on a fact-finding
mission, there were only two bodies they wanted to meet: IOSH and Arinite.
On 9th May 2023, Kim Bo-hyun and Cho Min-seong of KISA visited Brendan Tuite and Jan Mirkowski at Arinite’s UK headquarters.
On their agenda, they wanted to learn how the UK implements and enforces workplace H&S standards, and how consultancies are able to assist clients. We gave them the benefit of our years of accumulated wisdom of helping companies with:
- Audits and inspections
- Action planning
- Policy formulation
- Risk assessments for fire, display screen equipment, workplaces, hazardous
- substances, etc
- Incident investigation
- Training
- Provision of competent persons
- Occupational health/stress
- Pandemic protection, homeworking
- H&S management
Kim Bo-hyun afterwards stated:
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your kind explanation and hospitality
today. You have been so gentle and nice. And I believe the meeting we had with Arinite
was constructive and informative”.
Contact us
Arinite clients worldwide appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment.
Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple.
If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our
office +44 207 947 9581, or type an enquiry to: https://www.arinite.com/contact-us/.
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