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Joint Inspection of Safety, Health, and Working Environments for Fisheries Workers by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Ministry of Employment and Labor

  • Date

    2026.04.02.

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Joint Inspection of Safety, Health, and Working Environments for Fisheries Workers by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Ministry of Employment and Labor
- The first step toward improving the safety and health of aquaculture and salt farm workers
  • Joint fact-finding survey to be conducted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of Employment and Labor, local governments, etc., from March 17 to May 30


  The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF; Acting Minister Kim Sungbum) and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL; Minister Kim Young-hoon) will conduct a joint inspection on the safety and health of the working environment of fisheries workers employed in aquaculture and salt farms starting March 17.

  This inspection will be carried out to examine thoroughly the working environment in aquaculture and salt —areas that have been pointed out as safety and health blind spots* for fisheries workers, including risks such as electric shock, suffocation, and occupational diseases—and to analyze the findings in order to develop improvement measures.

   * Safety and health management for fisheries workers is managed by MOF for fishing vessel businesses (with 5 or more full-time employees) and by MOEL for land-based workplaces such as aquaculture and salt farms.

  The fact-finding survey will be conducted by a joint investigation team composed of experts from MOF, MOEL, local governments, Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority (KOMSA), and Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA), targeting 250 workplaces nationwide (200 aquaculture farms and 50 salt farms) from March 17 to May 30.

  The joint investigation team has prepared a Safety and Health Management Survey Checklist that considers different hazardous and dangerous factors depending on the work methods and fishing locations by industry—such as shallow-sea aquaculture, land-based tank farms, offshore cage farms, and salt farms—and it plans to conduct a thorough survey of the actual safety and health management status of aquaculture and salt farm workplaces.

   Based on the survey results, MOF and MOEL plan to implement measures to improve the system for managing the safety and health of fisheries workers. Specifically, the inspection team plans to take proactive measures including enacting or amending the relevant laws and regulations, developing financial projects, expanding the number of safety and health management personnel, and establishing new organizations to address any shortcomings or issues identified through the inspection.

  According to MOF’s Deputy Minister for Fisheries Policy Choi Hyeon-ho,  the awareness of business owners and the working environment in the fishing industry are somewhat lacking even though the safety and health of workers in industrial workplaces should be prioritized above all else. "Through this joint government fact-finding survey, we hope to examine carefully the current status of safety and health in the fishing industry, identify areas for improvement, and transform the working environment into a better one," he added.

  MOEL’s Deputy Minister for Industrial Safety and Health Policy Lee Min-jae emphasized that this joint fact-finding survey holds great significance since workplace safety and health management begins with identifying hazardous and dangerous factors within the workplace. "Based on the survey results, we will cooperate with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to implement institutional improvements and field-oriented safety management measures continuously for the prevention of industrial accidents," he said.
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