Economic Sector: "Ambiguous Serious Accident Act Needs Supplementary Legislation Through Enforcement Decree"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Six economic organizations, including the Korea Employers Federation, announced on the 13th that they have submitted a proposal for the enactment of the Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act to relevant government ministries.

The six economic organizations listed in this proposal are the Korea Employers Federation (Korea Employers Federation), Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Korean Industries, Korea International Trade Association, Korea Federation of Medium-sized Enterprises, and Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business.

These organizations explained the background of submitting the proposal, stating, "To minimize confusion and side effects caused by the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, supplementary legislation must be prioritized above all. The Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which the government is preparing, also needs to be reasonably enacted by specifically defining the role of management responsibility within a feasible scope."

The economic organizations pointed out that regarding "occupational disease patients such as acute poisoning, as prescribed by the Presidential Decree delegated by the Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act," the intent of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and the clause "such as acute poisoning" should be limited to diseases caused by chemical spills or similar work-related accidents.

They also added that chronic diseases such as cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases and occupational cancers, which are difficult to consider as acute poisoning, should be excluded from the scope of occupational diseases subject to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. Furthermore, when there is no severity standard for occupational disease patients, it should be defined as cases requiring treatment for six months or more, similar to accidents.

These organizations explained that obligations of management responsibility, such as "measures related to the establishment and implementation of safety and health management systems," should be managed by receiving reports at least once a year, and specific regulations should be prepared in the Enforcement Decree accordingly.

They argued that it is also unfair to require safety and health education solely based on the occurrence of a serious industrial accident, suggesting that it should be limited to cases with a confirmed final judgment and managed by receiving reports at least once, with specific regulations established in the Enforcement Decree.

In particular, these organizations emphasized that although there is no basis for delegation in the Enforcement Decree, the government should actively consider preparing the Enforcement Decree for related regulations, such as provisions where the obligations of management responsibility cannot be understood solely from the law and serious industrial accidents clearly caused by the negligence of workers should not result in investigation or punishment of management responsibility.

Additionally, they requested the government to create guidelines for necessary management items by industry and scale to enhance accident management capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises and to strengthen support such as on-site consulting.

A representative of the Korea Employers Federation said, "Only by preparing the 'Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act' that actively reflects this proposal can ambiguous or unclear matters in the law be somewhat resolved."

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