At the center of public criticism over the recent safety accident and prolonged conflicts with civic groups, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was recently seen taking steps to hear directly from interested parties.

Park attended an event Sunday with citizens and a panel of a dozen experts in various sectors who came to state their views regarding lax safety regulations and unstable working conditions of contracted workers.

The session was held following the death of a 19-year-old subway mechanic on May 28, who died while repairing a screen door at a Seoul subway station. The death sparked outcry against the “unfair” treatment of irregular workers, as he was found to have skipped due safety measures to save costs and time, as is customarily done.

Many of the participants called for an overhaul of the existing labor market system and long-continued customs of employing irregular workers through subcontracted companies.

The death of the subway worker had invited criticism against the city government, which governs subway operator Seoul Metro, and Park, who had been one of the presidential hopefuls among the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea on the back of his progressive policy initiatives and outspoken views both online and offline. 

The tragedy also highlighted the rampant recruitment of retiring high-ranking Seoul City officials to the city’s subsidiary firms at high wages.

Since the fatal subway accident, Park has suffered a decline in approval ratings for two consecutive weeks. According to a poll of some 2,000 adults here collected by Realmeter from June 7 to 10, Park held an approval rating to be the next president of 5.6 percent, a 1.1 percentage point fall from the previous week. He was also pulled down to fifth place, passed by his conservative predecessor Oh Se-hoon.

At the debate, Park vowed to revolutionize the current labor system in the city’s business operations after the recent death of a subway mechanic shed light on poor treatment of employees at subcontracted companies.

“Over the last four years, I was able to change temporary positions of at least 7,000 workers to permanent positions, but if you say that employment discrimination still exists, I will review the system all over again,” said Park.

A worker from subway operator Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit’s labor union who attended the debate said that they were constantly exposed to flawed safety systems and tight working schedules.

“Statistics showed that at least 98 percent of subway station platform’s screen door mechanics said they have done work by themselves during repairs,” he said at the debate.

According to the safety manual for subway maintenance subcontractors established by Seoul Metro last year, workers are instructed to work in pairs. But such requirements are often overlooked due to the limited number of workers as well as urgent calls by subway operators to quickly fix screen doors for passengers’ convenience.

At the end of the debate session, Park said he continued to stand by his core values in humanity.

“I think the only way to resolve this kind of issue would be to have a philanthropic society, where human values come before everything else,” Park said.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Park met with civic group members and parents of children with developmental disabilities who have been holding rallies for 42 days demanding direct dialogue with the mayor over ways to improve infrastructure for the disabled.

“I am sorry to have you all wait for so long, I was not considerate enough to understand your and your children’s sufferings,” Park said as he met with the parents of the children in front of the city hall.

Effectively upon the meeting, parents and members of the Korean Parents’ Network for People with Disabilities ended their all-night sit-in protest at the back gate of Seoul City Hall on Tuesday. The groups and Seoul City agreed to review their proposals to support housing facilities for those with developmental disabilities, as well as a pension plan.

Under the city-run task force team, parents and members of the civic groups will establish a master plan to support those with development disabilities living in Seoul.

Seoul City had previously explained that it was difficult for the city to accept the group’s proposals, as supporting their proposal required a lot of funding as well as in-depth discussion with the central government.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)