Even though the rights to work in a safe environment are the basic rights to protect one’s life, body, and health, industrial fires have recently occurred in many workplaces, which attracts a lot of attention from people concerned about occupational safety.

The reason industrial accidents occur repeatedly is that willful negligence by the responsible business leader is not proven even if there are serious consequences such as death resulting from a violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and site managers are often punished instead or the level of punishment is too lenient compared to the consequences, which decreases the incentive for employers to take action to prevent industrial accidents.

Thus, to ensure that companies manage safety and health at a business level, it is important to strengthen the business leader’s responsibility while increasing the level of punishment as well as financial penalties for any industrial accident-related death.

In this regard, this Act aims to impose obligations on the CEO to check key matters in health and safety measures in workplaces to make it easier to prove negligence in the case of any industrial accident, and tighten the punishment level for any industrial accident death resulting from a violation of obligatory safety and health measures while imposing penalty surcharges on business entities to raise awareness about industrial safety and prevent industrial accidents.

Details

A. Define obligations by the CEO to check measures to prevent the occurrence or recurrence of any serious accident in workplaces and supervisory comments from supervisors and impose up to 10 million won in penalty surcharges for failing to check the foregoing (Article 14-2 newly inserted and Article 175 paragraph 4 subparagraph 3).

B. Define the lower limit of fines imposed on the employer or contractor for violating safety and health measures and leading to any employee’s death as up to 5 million won for individuals and 30 million won for business entities (Article 167 paragraph 1 and Article 173 subparagraph 1).

C. Increase punishment up to 2 times if 3 or more employees die from the same industrial accident resulting from any violation of safety and health obligations by the employer or contractor (Article 167 paragraph 2).

D. Allow the Ministry of Employment and Labor to impose up to 10 billion won in penalty surcharges if 3 or more employees die from the same industrial accident resulting from any violation of safety and health obligations by the employer or contractor, or 3 or more employees die in a year, and determine the level of penalty surcharges as prescribed by Presidential Decree considering a company’s size, revenue, type of violation, severity of violation, and industrial accident consequences (Article 161-2 newly inserted).

E. Allow the Ministry of Employment and Labor to have the Penalty Surcharges Review Committee evaluate the appropriateness of penalty surcharges (Article 161-3 newly inserted).

- Define obligations by the CEO to check measures to prevent the occurrence or recurrence of any serious accident in workplaces and supervisory comments from supervisors and impose up to 10 million won in penalty surcharges for failing to check the foregoing (Article 14-2 newly inserted and Article 175 paragraph 4 subparagraph 3).

- Allow the Ministry of Employment and Labor to impose up to 10 billion won in penalty surcharges if 3 or more employees die from the same industrial accident resulting from any violation of safety and health obligations by the employer or contractors, or 3 or more employees die in a year (Article 161-2 newly inserted).