"Concerns Over Double Punishment"... Korea Employers Federation Submits Business Community Opinions on the Serious Accidents Punishment Act to the National Assembly

KCCI CI

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) announced on the 25th that it has conveyed the business community's opinions on the "Act on Punishment of Enterprises and Responsible Persons for Serious Accidents," proposed by Justice Party lawmaker Eunmi Kang, to the National Assembly.

In the opinion letter delivered on the 23rd, KEF pointed out, "Currently, even without comprehensive consideration of the situation where business owners and prime contractors cannot fully comply with all safety and health regulations beyond their responsibilities and management scope, the law broadly holds business owners and management responsible for accidents."

Reviewing the bill proposed by Lawmaker Kang, it broadly imposes hazardous and risk prevention obligations on business owners (limited to individual business owners) and management (corporate CEOs and directors), and also imposes joint hazardous and risk prevention obligations and accident responsibilities on prime contractors along with subcontractors. Furthermore, if violations of hazardous and risk prevention obligations cause worker casualties (death or injury), the bill stipulates criminal liability and punitive damages for business owners, management, and corporations as follows.

KEF pointed out that since business owners are already punished under current laws when accidents occur, enacting a new law would constitute double punishment. KEF explained, "The punishment level for business owners under the current Industrial Safety and Health Act is already among the highest in the world, and the amended Industrial Safety Act, which strengthens business owner penalties, was implemented recently. Increasing the punishment severity further to more strongly penalize business owners and management in case of accidents is excessive punishment on companies and is unlikely to enhance industrial accident prevention effects."

KEF stated that if this law is enacted, "It would turn business owners and management into potential criminals, causing a CEO avoidance phenomenon and significantly shrinking corporate management activities. Therefore, we oppose the enactment of this bill, and believe that legislative strengthening of penalties should be discussed after evaluating the application status of the amended Industrial Safety Act."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.