정예영  박재희

Vol. 37,  No. 1, pp. 49-54, Feb.  2022
10.14346/JKOSOS.2022.37.1.49

musculoskeletal burden works risk assessment for musculoskeletal burden works symptom survey

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In Korea, companies which have work-related musculoskeletal burden works should have conducted legal risk assessments every three years from 2004 onwards. However, due to problems with the legal definition of work-related musculoskeletal burden works, some companies may have been exempted from the risk assessment even though their workers still experience work-related musculoskeletal pain. For example, the manufacturing process used by a particular semiconductor manufacturing company involved a great deal of legal musculoskeletal bueden works. However, this company eliminated the musculoskeletal burden works by continuously introducing automated processes, and finally, in 2016, all work which was legally defined as musculoskeletal burden work were removed from the company’s manufacturing process. Nevertheless, in a 2016 survey, 9.6% of the company's workers still complained of musculoskeletal pain, and in a 2019 survey this proportion actually increased to 15.7%. This incident demonstrates the limitations and problems of the current legal risk assessment of work-related musculoskeletal burden work. Therefore, this study proposes two improvements to solve these problems. Firstly, it is necessary to broaden the current legal definition of work-related musculoskeletal burden works. For example, vibration risk factors and push/pull tasks that are currently missing from the definition should be included. Secondly, it is proposed that a survey on musculoskeletal pain should be conducted for all workers, regardless of whether they are engaged in musculoskeletal burden works. The results of this study could be used to improve the legal risk assessment of work-related musculoskeletal burden works.