Democratic Party's Lee Tan-hee Proposes Bill to Prevent 'Soft Punishment' in Serious Accident Act

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] Lee Tan-hee, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 13th, took the lead in proposing an amendment to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act to reduce industrial accident incidents.

The amendment sets a minimum fine (100 million won) imposed on corporations and management officials when a serious accident occurs, and introduces a special provision requiring judges to hear opinions on sentencing from industrial accident experts and crime victim organizations before imposing fines.

Although the Serious Accidents Punishment Act was enacted earlier this year, criticism has continued that key provisions were deleted during the bill review process, which is also the background for this bill proposal.

The introduction of a minimum fine is explained as a measure to prevent the court's "light punishment." Representative Lee pointed out, "Regarding work-related fatal accidents, courts impose absurdly low fines, and no matter how high the upper limit of punishment is, the reality is that an average fine of 4.5 million won is imposed per deceased worker." He also cited the case of the UK, where the minimum fine for industrial accident deaths reaches about 800 million won.

The purpose is to impose fines higher than the cost of complying with safety regulations when companies and management officials violate safety regulations, thereby suppressing industrial accident deaths.

Representative Lee emphasized, "We must instill in companies the perception that 'violating regulations results in greater costs.' That is the way to raise the value of workers' lives and guarantee human dignity and equality rights," adding, "The National Assembly must properly enact laws to prevent the emergence of a second Kim Yong-gyun or a third Lee Seon-ho." In November last year, he led the proposal of the "Corporate and Government Officials' Punishment Act for Serious Accidents," which included minimum fines and special sentencing provisions, but it was shelved, and he is now pushing it again as an amendment.

According to official statistics from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, 882 workers died from industrial accidents last year, meaning 2.4 workers per day did not return home.

In addition to Representative Lee, Kwon In-sook, Lee Soo-jin (proportional representation), Yoo Jeong-ju, Choi Hye-young, Noh Woong-rae, Oh Young-hwan, Jang Kyung-tae, Jin Sung-jun, Lee Hyung-seok, Lee Dong-joo, Jeon Yong-gi, Yang Yi-won-young, So Byung-hoon, and Shin Dong-geun co-sponsored the bill.

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