[Unofficial Korean-to-English translation provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

"[Exclusive] “Aricell is lying”… Testimony from the company that dispatched foreign workers to the fire-hit factory," 25 June 2024

“We did not give any work instructions nor did we go to the site. When Aricell said, ‘Please send a few people,’ we responded, ‘Yes, we will send them,’ and then dispatched the manpower.”

...A representative from Meicell, a company that supplied foreign labor to the Aricell factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where a lithium primary battery production plant explosion occurred, said the above in an interview with Hankyung on the 25th.

The Meicell representative claimed, “We do not instruct the work, and we cannot even go to the site. We only supply the manpower, and Aricell educates and instructs the workers.” They added, “the day before deploying the workers, we sent all the resumes to Aricell by email, and their claim that they do not have the list of workers is also a lie.”

Meicell plans to submit related evidence to the police. ...

Previously, Park Soon-Kwan, the CEO of Aricell, stated ...."There was no illegal dispatch, and sufficient safety training was provided to the foreign workers.” He added, “The work instructions were also given by the dispatch company [Meicell], and we do not have the personal details of these workers.”

...Summarizing Meicell’s claims, there are strong indications that workers were illegally dispatched to the site.

...Generally, workers cannot be dispatched to unauthorized manufacturing processes. If Aricell directly instructed the workers, it is highly likely to be an illegal dispatch.

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