South Korea Battery Plant Rushed Production Before Deadly Fire, Police Say
…The fire at a lithium battery plant in South Korea that killed 23 workers in June broke out after the factory’s operator rushed production, ignored signs of danger and provided no safety training to employees, investigators said on Friday.
The fire in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, was one of the country’s worst industrial disasters in recent years and claimed the lives of mostly migrant workers…The company, Aricell, was rushing to fulfill a contract with South Korea’s military…
The police said they had opened investigations into 18 people on charges including involuntary manslaughter, and filed for arrest warrants for two officials at Aricell. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it had applied for arrest warrants for three executives, one of whom the police are also seeking an arrest warrant for, at Aricell and a related company for labor violations…
A person who picked up the phone at the Aricell factory in Hwaseong on Friday afternoon declined to comment…
To meet the new production schedule, plant operators assigned untrained temporary hires en masse to the production lines for lithium batteries…
Labor investigators found that the plant also had overdue wages for 321 workers and that there were 65 other violations in its facilities, officials said on Friday.