[단독]Eui-seon Eui-sun cancels New Year’s party… “Condolences for the accidents of partner employees at Ulsan Plant”

Eui-sun Eui-sun, 51, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, canceled the 2021 New Year’s Day on the morning of the 4th. It is a moral responsibility for the death of an employee of a partner company that occurred at the Ulsan plant the previous day (3rd). Hyundai Motor Company’s New Year’s Party, which was scheduled for live online broadcasting for employees, was replaced with a letter from Chairman Chung on the afternoon of the 4th.

On this day, Hyundai Motor Company expressed its sincere condolences through its in-house communication network, saying, “We are pleased to announce that the Hyundai Motor Group New Year’s Party has been canceled in 2021 with unfortunate news. I wish the deceased a blessing.” Hyundai Motor Company’s New Year’s Party this year was the first New Year’s event for executives and employees after Chairman Eui-sun Eui-sun took office in October last year. The number of employees of the Hyundai Motor Group is about 280,000 (as of June last year).

Inside and outside Hyundai Motor Company, Chairman Chung was expected to present a detailed blueprint for new fields such as mobility and robots as well as finished cars at the New Year’s party. Last month, Hyundai Motor Group announced that it would acquire an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics, a robotics company, from Softbank, Japan, for 880 million dollars (about 1 trillion won). Hyundai Motors owns a 30% stake, and Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis hold 20% and 10%, respectively. In the finished vehicle sector, it is expected to present new goals in the eco-friendly vehicle sector, including electric vehicles (EV), as well as existing internal combustion engine vehicles.

According to Hyundai Motor Company, it is important to present a blueprint for the future through a New Year’s address, but he decided that expressing condolences for a life-threatening accident was a priority. In an internal message, Hyundai Motor Company stressed, “The company will take all measures to prevent such accidents from occurring in the future.”

According to the police and Hyundai Motors, on the 3rd at Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan Plant 1, a partner company employee A (50s) was caught in an equipment compressing iron scraps and died. At the time, the factory was reported to have completed construction of facilities for electric vehicle production for two weeks from the end of December and was preparing for a test operation for full-scale operation on the 4th. Mr. A worked for a partner company that maintains and manages equipment.

An official from Hyundai Motors said, “As the investigation agency such as the police investigates the exact cause of the accident, we will do our best to take responsible measures as soon as the results come out.”

Reporter Kim Young-min [email protected]