80% of Companies with Major Accidents Last Year Applied Legal Grace Period for Fewer Than 50 Employees

Doubts Over the Effectiveness of the Serious Accident Punishment Act to Be Enforced in January Next Year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Last year, there were 671 domestic workplaces where serious accidents, including worker fatalities, occurred. Small-scale workplaces with fewer than 50 employees accounted for 80% of these cases.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the list of workplaces where serious accidents occurred last year on the 10th.

The Ministry publishes the list of workplaces with serious accidents annually to prevent industrial accidents. The list targets workplaces where penalties have been confirmed for violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA).

According to ISHA, a serious accident refers to incidents involving one or more deaths, two or more injuries requiring medical treatment for over three months, or ten or more injuries or occupational diseases.

There were 671 workplaces with serious accidents last year, the same as the previous year. Most workplaces had one fatality (632 workplaces), followed by those with two fatalities (28 workplaces). By industry, construction accounted for more than half (369 workplaces).

By workplace size, those with fewer than 50 employees numbered 539, accounting for 80.3%. This was followed by workplaces with 100?299 employees (56), 50?99 employees (52), 300?499 employees (16), 1,000 or more employees (5), and 500?999 employees (3).

The fact that 8 out of 10 workplaces with serious accidents are small-scale workplaces with fewer than 50 employees raises questions about the effectiveness of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which will be enforced starting January next year.

The Serious Accident Punishment Act allows for the punishment of management officials, including CEOs, when serious accidents occur. However, workplaces with fewer than 50 employees are granted a three-year grace period after the law's promulgation before it applies. Workplaces with fewer than five employees are entirely excluded from the law's scope.

There were eight workplaces with two or more annual industrial accident deaths, down from 20 the previous year. All eight belonged to the construction industry, and three had fewer than 50 employees.

Six workplaces, including Jungheung Togeon, Jeongnam Enterprise, Sekniks, Daheung Construction, Chilseong Construction, and Woomi Development, concealed industrial accident occurrences.

Five workplaces suspected of "outsourcing risk" due to a high proportion of subcontracted worker fatalities were LS-Nikko Copper Refinery, Korea Zinc Onsan Refinery, Dongkuk Steel Incheon Plant, Hyundai Steel Dangjin Plant, and Samsung Heavy Industries.

Park Youngman, Director of the Industrial Accident Prevention and Compensation Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, stated, "For workplaces and executives subject to disclosure, various government awards will be restricted for the next three years, and CEO safety training will be conducted under the supervision of the local employment and labor office."

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