The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Workplace Accidents in Korea.

(1) Background: Although the number of people infected with COVID-19 has increased over time, its effects on workplace accidents are still poorly understood. On the one hand, COVID-19 can reduce workplace accidents through contracted economic activities or changes in work methods. On the other hand, it can increase workplace accidents by spreading in the workplace. The main purpose of this paper is to examine how COVID-19 affected workplace accidents in Korea during the early part of the pandemic. (2) Methods: This paper utilizes the administrative data on workplace accidents in Korea collected by Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. In particular, we use monthly data from February 2016 to August 2020. This period was chosen to rule out the effect from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015 and to include COVID-19 effects in 2020, given the available data. To examine the impact of COVID-19 on workplace injury and illness, we estimate fixed effects regression models, allowing us to control for group and time effects. (3) Results: COVID-19 was generally found to reduce workplace accidents in Korea, particularly through a reduction in occupational diseases. However, we also found that COVID-19 increased occupational injuries for males and workers in the transportation industry. We provide some evidence that these workers experienced an increase in workload and were unable to change work methods including working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. (4) Conclusions: Our results indicate that to reduce workplace accidents, government interventions should be directed at workers who are unable to change work methods and who are likely to suffer an increase in work burden due to COVID-19.

Corrigendum to "Unions, Health and Safety Committees, and Workplace Accidents in the Korean Manufacturing Sector" [Saf Health Work 7 (2) (2016) 161-165].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.shaw.2016.02.005.].

Unions, Health and Safety Committees, and Workplace Accidents in the Korean Manufacturing Sector.

BACKGROUND: Despite the declining trend of workplace accidents in Republic of Korea, its level is still quite high compared with that in other developed countries. Factors that are responsible for high workplace accidents have not been well documented in Republic of Korea. The main purpose of this paper is to estimate the effects of unions and health and safety committees on workplace accidents in Korean manufacturing firms. We also allow for the interactions between unions and health and safety committees in the analysis. The results obtained in this paper will not only contribute to the literature in this field, but might also be useful for employers and worker representatives who are trying to find an effective way to reduce workplace accidents. METHODS: This paper utilizes the 2012 Occupational Safety and Health Trend Survey data, which is a unique data set providing information on workplace injuries and illness as well as other characteristics of participatory firms, representative of the manufacturing industry in Republic of Korea. RESULTS: In estimating the effects of unions and health and safety committees, we build a negative binomial regression model in which the interactions between unions and health and safety committees are permissible in reducing workplace accidents. CONCLUSION: Health and safety committees were found to reduce the incidence of accidents whereas unionized establishments have higher incidence of accidents than nonunionized establishments. We also found that health and safety committees can more effectively reduce accidents in nonunionized establishments. By contrast, nonexclusive joint committees can more effectively reduce accidents in unionized establishments.