◀ anchor ▶
“If I’m bored, I’ll lie down on the floor with newspaper and sleep.”
“Wherever there is a space like this, you just lie on the floor.”
“I have cystitis. I have a constant urge to urinate.
The construction site of Samsung Biologics’ 4th factory, where workers are lying around the factory and contracting a bowel movement to get sick because there are not enough rest facilities as well as toilets.
We reported it over two days.
How could the construction site of a world-class company, the world’s largest bio-factory, be so poor?
Let’s look at the report of reporter Ji Yoon-soo, who has been tracking this issue first, and then we will continue the story.
◀ Report ▶
Samsung Biologics Plant 4 started construction in November 2020.
It was originally planned to be built in 2022, but as the bio industry grew due to the Corona crisis, the schedule was greatly accelerated and construction began.
However, there was a problem that there was no site to prepare ancillary facilities such as toilets and rest rooms.
In the case of factories 1, 2, and 3 constructed earlier, auxiliary facilities were placed on the vacant site of factory 4, but there was no such site when the construction of factory 4 started.
But the construction started just like that.
[하해성/전국플랜트건설노조 정책국장]
“As the construction of the 4th plant started in November 2020, we have already received a contract in advance. We started the construction without preparing any auxiliary facilities around it.”
In fact, as the construction progressed, complaints about poor toilets and rest facilities began to emerge from the site.
Even last winter, workers were seen resting outside, shivering from the strong cold, but neither the ordering company nor the construction company came up with any sharp measures.
Then the problem got worse this year.
This is after Samsung Bio announced that it would advance the partial operation of the plant by about six months from the original plan.
[존 림/삼성바이오로직스 대표이사 (지난 1월)]
“The 4th plant will secure as many customers as possible by strengthening pre-order activities with the goal of ‘partial operation by the end of the year’.”
As the plan was shortened, the number of workers on the site increased, and the problem of toilets and lounges, which were already lacking, became extremely serious.
[현장 노동자]
“If you go, you will have to stand in line now…Sometimes you are in a hurry, so there are many times when you just run out of urine.”
In the end, the union held a press conference last month, and only after MBC started to cover it, some improvement measures were made, such as supplying 20 toilets and 300 resting chairs.
Samsung Engineering, the construction company, explained, “The construction progress has been slowed down due to the corona crisis, and the number of necessary manpower has increased.”
Samsung Bio, which received 24 points in the labor union’s human rights situation survey, did not respond to MBC’s coverage.
This is Yoonsoo Ji from MBC News.
Video coverage: Na Kyung-woon, Heo Won-cheol / Video editing: Jo Min-woo / Video source: Samsung Biologics YouTube
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