— Overview
This page follows an account that ranked three business issues from what it calls the recent year. The vantage is mid-2010s, and the ranking is left in that period; it is not treated as a current 2026 list. First is the Oxy humidifier-disinfectant scandal, which the account dates from 2011, when pregnant women died of unexplained acute lung disease and a shared use of humidifier disinfectant came to light. The government named the cause, recommended a recall, then issued a mandatory collection order and pressed manufacturers for compensation.
The account judges that the manufacturer was slow to admit responsibility, that a boycott faded, and that public medical gaps later visible in the MERS outbreak — delayed first response, too few isolation beds — should be repaired. Second is the minimum wage, read through long working hours among OECD countries, as the account states them, and through the Guui Station accident and the conditions of part-time work. Germany’s 2015 introduction of a minimum wage, given here as about 10,300 won in Korean terms, is cited as evidence that poor jobs were filtered out and better, socially insured jobs increased.
Third is Samsung C&T’s restructuring after an integrated launch in September 2015, construction-market losses, an operating loss the account puts close to 200 percent, and the cancellation of an 800-billion-won subway contract in Qatar. The three issues are left as the account ranks them, and no later official totals are added.
— Contents and key concepts
A mid-2010s ranking, not a current list
The account opens with a small-causes-large-effects image, then sets itself a modest task: pick three business issues from what it calls the recent year, and ask what they did to society. The year it has in view is a mid-2010s year. The ranking is left in that period. It is not rolled forward as a current 2026 list, and no later official total is added.
The order it gives is firm. First, the Oxy humidifier-disinfectant scandal, chosen because, in this telling, a firm chased profit without regard for consumers or for society, and because its response to victims was poor enough to shrink consumption. Second, the minimum wage, tied to the worry of making a living, to long working hours among OECD countries as the account states them, and to part-time work that hangs on the legal floor. Third, Samsung C&T’s restructuring, already once restructured and still, the account says, getting worse.
2011 and after, Germany in 2015, and a cancelled Qatar contract
The Oxy case is dated from 2011, when pregnant women died of unexplained acute lung disease and a shared use of humidifier disinfectant came to light. The government named the cause, recommended a recall, then issued a mandatory collection order and pressed manufacturers to compensate. The account judges that the manufacturer took time to admit the case and did not take clear responsibility, and that a boycott faded. As a remedy it points to gaps later visible in the MERS outbreak: a delayed first response, and isolation beds that had not been prepared. Those public-health remarks are left as the account makes them.
On the minimum wage, the account turns to the Guui Station accident and to poor conditions for part-time work. It notes a fear that a higher floor will cut jobs, and answers that many jobs exist but the terms do not fit. As evidence it cites Germany’s introduction of a minimum wage in 2015, given here as about 10,300 won in Korean terms, after which, the statistics it uses say, poor jobs were filtered out and better jobs with social insurance increased. That 2015 figure is left in 2015. Samsung C&T, launched in its integrated form in September 2015, is described in a construction market already in the red, with an operating loss the account puts close to 200 percent, and with notice that an 800-billion-won subway contract in Qatar, tied to World Cup preparations, had been cancelled. Without a plan, it says, further cuts would be hard to avoid. The three issues, the account concludes, are connected rather than separate. That judgment is left as it is written.
Sources
- an account, from a mid-2010s vantage, ranking three business issues from what it calls the recent year: the Oxy humidifier-disinfectant scandal dated from 2011, the minimum wage after the Guui Station accident with a 2015 German comparison, and Samsung C&T’s restructuring after September 2015 and a cancelled Qatar contract, without later official totals.
Last updated: 14 November 2026
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