Issue Focus

The number of health officers which should be assigned to each business place is stipulated in the ｢Enforcement Decree of the Occupational Safety and Health Act｣ based on the size of full-time workers. There is a practical upper limit to the maximum number of assigned workers in 43 industries excluding the construction industry at ‘2 or more’, for the construction industry, the number of health officers is increasing as the project budget amount increases.without an upper limit. Compared to the safety officers, which is determined by the project budget amount, the number of health officers occupies 60-70% of that of safety managers, and it is necessary to review whether this is a relatively appropriate level. In 2021, among industrial accidents in the construction industry, those suffering from occupational diseases and medical treatment account for 10.1%, which is lower than the overall industry average (16.5%) and only accounts for a small proportion of half of the manufacturing industry (23.3%). Among the industrial accidents of the construction, accidental accidents occupies a larger proportion and the occupational disesase takes a lower proportion. However, construction industry is forced to assign more health officers than other industries, such as manufacturing, which shows much higher proportion of occupational disease accidents. Regarding the analysis of industrial accident statistics by industry, it is appropriate to adjust the construction industry's health officer deployment standards to the same or lower level as the manufacturing industry, and to set the upper limit of the number of the health officers of construction industry '2 or more', the same as in other industries. If health officers in the construction industry are assigned in accordance with the current ｢Enforcement Decree of the Occupational Safety and Health Act｣, the increase in the number of assigned personnel will inevitably lead to an increase in the safety and health management expenses. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the accounting standard of the safety and health management budget so that sufficient safety cost could be secured. In the long run, in order to improve health management of the construction sites, additional efforts are needed to improve health management in small and medium-sized construction sites, considering the fact that they have shown a higer disease and accidents occur than larger sites.