Geonsanyeon: "Serious Accident Punishment Act Turns Construction Companies into Potential Criminals and Produces Ex-convicts"

"Relax Punishment Regulations and Establish New Exemption Provisions"

On the 26th of last month, a tower crane collapsed at a public housing construction site in the Gosan district of Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, seriously injuring a crane operator in his 60s. The photo shows the tower crane accident site.

The Korea Construction Industry Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as KCIRI) announced on the 20th that the "Serious Accidents Punishment Act (Corporate Punishment Act for Serious Accidents)," which is set to be enforced in January next year, should have its punishment provisions relaxed and exemption clauses newly established.

In the report titled "Impact of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act on the Construction Industry and Directions for Improvement," published on the 20th, KCIRI stated, "Due to the nature of the industry, the construction sector is expected to be the most affected by the enactment of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, especially small and medium-sized construction companies are anticipated to be significantly impacted," asserting this position.

Among all industries, the construction industry is known to have the highest number of fatalities due to industrial accidents. According to KCIRI, out of a total of 855 accident fatalities in 2019, 428 (50.1%) were in the construction industry.

KCIRI commented, "In this situation, uniformly specifying punishment for fatal accidents turns all construction companies into potential offenders and results in indiscriminately producing criminal records."

Furthermore, in 2019, out of 27,211 industrial accidents in the construction sector, 21,904 occurred at workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, accounting for 80.5% of the total. KCIRI expects that "the impact of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act will be greater on small and medium-sized construction companies."

KCIRI thus proposed the need for supplementary legislation, including relaxation of punishments and exemption provisions.

KCIRI stated, "It is necessary to supplement the punishment provisions, including reasonable levels of punishment and targets of punishment," adding, "The current minimum punishment for negligence that is not intentional is considered excessively severe, and rather than blanket punishment of companies and individuals, appropriate punishment targets should be considered based on the safety and health obligations assigned to companies and individuals."

They continued, "Similar to the 'Fair Trade Act,' there is a need to establish exemption provisions for companies that actively implement compliance," and added, "Even if safety and health obligations are faithfully practiced, when an accident occurs, the problem of uniformly punishing management officials needs to be addressed."

Meanwhile, the Serious Accidents Punishment Act passed the National Assembly in January and is scheduled to be enforced from January 27 next year. The core of the law is to impose strong punishments, including criminal liability on corporations and management officials, depending on corporate negligence, to reduce serious accidents such as fatalities.

In the event of a fatal accident, management officials may face imprisonment with labor for more than one year or a fine of up to 1 billion KRW. Corporations may be fined up to 5 billion KRW, and in cases of injury or illness, fines may be up to 1 billion KRW.

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