Reasons for Proposal
The current Act requires construction project owners to fill out basic safety and health logs, take action to ensure that construction designers and contractees fill out safety and health logs across different phases, and check whether the safety and health logs are filled out and implemented.
Nevertheless, it does not have any specific provision that requires a construction project owner to review whether safety and health logs have been appropriately filled out across different phases, which has been pointed out as not being effective in preventing industrial accidents.
Furthermore, the current Act cancels any subsidy or support received for industrial accident prevention activities in an unfair method and allows for the recovery of an additional amount not exceeding the canceled amount, which is substantially lower than the penalty surcharges imposed under the Subsidy Management Act and the Act on Prohibition of False Claims for Public Funds and Recovery of Illicit Profits and leads to a controversy over whether it is effective in punishing such unfair recipients.
In this regard, this Act aims to require construction project owners to request safety and health experts meeting qualification requirements prescribed by the Minister of Employment and Labor to review whether the details of safety and health logs across different phases are appropriate, and increase the upper limit of the amount, which is taken back additionally if a subsidy or support for industrial accident prevention activities is canceled, to 5 times the canceled amount in an effort to improve effectiveness in preventing industrial accidents (Articles 67 and 158).
Major Provisions
- Require construction project owners to request safety and health experts meeting qualification requirements prescribed by the Minister of Employment and Labor to review whether the details of safety and health logs across different phases are appropriate (Article 67).
- Increase the upper limit of the amount, which is recovered additionally if a subsidy or support for industrial accident prevention activities is canceled, to 5 times the canceled amount (Article 158).
