Enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act Next Year... Safety Assurance Critical for Domestic Construction Industry

Samsung C&T, POSCO to Fully Guarantee the Right to Work Stoppage

Samsung C&T Work Suspension Declaration Ceremony (Photo by Samsung C&T)

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] Ahead of the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act next year, the domestic construction industry is putting all its efforts into securing safety at construction sites. While fully guaranteeing workers' right to stop work, they also plan to establish a system for reporting unsafe work demands.

According to the construction industry on the 9th, companies such as Samsung C&T and POSCO Engineering & Construction are actively working to institutionally guarantee workers' right to stop work. The right to stop work is the right to halt work when there is an imminent danger of an industrial accident or when a serious accident has occurred, as stipulated in Article 52 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. However, due to losses and disadvantages caused by work stoppages, exercising this right has been significantly restricted in actual workplaces.

Samsung C&T's construction division plans to enhance the effectiveness of this right by holding declarations of workers' right to stop work at domestic and overseas sites and fully guaranteeing this right. Even if the imminent danger stipulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act is not present, workers will be able to exercise the right to stop work more easily if they judge the environment or situation to be unsafe, applying this comprehensively.

In particular, to resolve concerns about disadvantages, which have been the biggest obstacle to workers exercising their right to stop work, practical compensation and reward systems will be introduced. If construction is halted or delayed due to the exercise of the right to stop work, losses will be compensated to partner companies, and this will be reflected in construction contracts. Additionally, workers who actively participate in identifying and eliminating site hazards in advance by exercising the right to stop work will receive incentives.

POSCO Engineering & Construction has also enabled workers to exercise the right to refuse dangerous work by requesting work stoppage when safety facilities are inadequate or unsafe conditions arise that make work impossible. Anyone, including partner company employees and all site staff, can immediately exercise this right by contacting the site safety officer, and the company explained that there will be no disadvantages resulting from this.

Furthermore, a Safety Report System will be newly established and operated at all construction sites nationwide. This system allows anyone, including partner company employees, to report unsafe conditions witnessed on site or unsafe work demands via an external website or email. Various suggestions for improving safety and health processes, systems, and institutional reforms to prevent serious accidents can also be proposed.

These changes are largely influenced by the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act next year. From now on, if a serious industrial accident such as a worker's death occurs at an industrial site, business owners and management officials will face imprisonment of more than one year or fines of up to 1 billion KRW. A Samsung C&T official said, "We will undertake extensive system and institutional improvements to activate the exercise of workers' right to stop work at all domestic and overseas sites."

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