Employment Minister: "Guidance to Include Safety and Health Measures for Dispatched Workers under the Serious Accidents Act"

Briefing on the 2021 Industrial Accident Fatality Reduction Strategy

Minister Lee Jae-gap of the Ministry of Employment and Labor. / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Lee Jae-gap, Minister of Employment and Labor, stated on the 21st, "In preparation for the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (Serious Accidents Act), we will guide so that safety and health measures for subcontracted, consigned, and service workers can also be included in the plan content."

On the same day, Minister Lee held a briefing at the Government Seoul Office regarding this year's direction for reducing industrial accident fatalities and made these remarks.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the "Serious Accidents Punishment Act" passed the National Assembly on the 8th. It is scheduled to be enforced from January 27 next year, and in 2024, the law will also apply to businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

From this year, under the Industrial Safety and Health Act, CEOs of companies with 500 or more regular employees and construction companies ranked within the top 1000 in construction capability must establish an annual safety and health plan, report it to the board of directors, and obtain approval.

This principle applies to 2,324 sites this year (1,324 companies with 500 or more employees + 1,000 construction companies). Failure to comply will result in a fine of up to 10 million KRW.

In his opening remarks, Minister Lee said, "In preparation for the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Act, we will guide so that safety and health measures for subcontracted, consigned, and service workers can also be included in the plan content."

He also stated that support for establishing safety management systems in small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 50 employees will be expanded. Customized consulting will be provided to each company, and financial support will be increased over the next three years through safety investment innovation projects.

The newly established innovation project this year focuses on supporting and financing the replacement of hazardous machinery in workplaces with fewer than 50 employees and improving hazardous processes and equipment mainly in the root industries.

Inspections and supervision focusing on risk factors for serious accidents will be strengthened, especially in the construction industry.

In particular, for the construction industry, real-time monitoring of the timing of hazardous tasks such as exterior wall work will be conducted to carry out timely inspections and supervision to improve risk factors like falls.

Minister Lee stated, "If fatal accidents repeatedly occur and safety management is poor, special supervision will be conducted at all sites of the relevant construction company."

They plan to focus inspections and supervision on compliance with the three major safety measures: fall risk prevention measures, entrapment risk prevention measures, and mandatory use of essential safety protective equipment.

Additionally, efforts will be made to ▲strengthen the role of local governments and private industrial accident prevention organizations in accident prevention ▲expand safety management support for small-scale businesses ▲and disclose analyses of industrial accident causes.

Minister Lee said, "The government will focus on the prevention of serious accidents to protect workers in industrial sites and will make thorough preparations for the enforcement so that the Serious Accidents Act can function as a foundation for reducing industrial accident fatalities."

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