Construction Industry Opposes "Serious Accident Punishment Act, Will Produce More Lawbreakers"

Government Announces 'Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accident Punishment Act'
Construction Association "Industry Opinions Not Reflected... Concerns Over Innocent Victims"

The scene of the collapse disaster at the Gwangju Hakdong 4 District redevelopment demolition site, which resulted in 17 casualties last month

The construction industry has expressed concerns over the Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, for which the government announced a legislative notice plan.

On the 10th, the Korea Construction Association stated in an official position, "The Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act does not sufficiently reflect the opinions of the construction industry," adding, "If implemented as is, there is a very high likelihood that only innocent victims or offenders will be mass-produced."

The association pointed out that the ambiguity of the law has not been resolved through the Enforcement Decree. Specifically, details regarding the scope of management responsibility have still not been included in the decree.

So far, the construction industry has requested that the Enforcement Decree specify who qualifies as a "person responsible for safety and health" under the definition of "management responsibility" in the bill, but this was not reflected. They also demanded concrete standards for subjective terms such as "appropriate" and "faithful," but these requests were also ignored.

The association argued, "Ultimately, the responsibility for the ambiguity and inclusiveness of the law has been shifted to companies," and "As a result, corporate risks have increased, and companies are burdened with unfair responsibilities while managing their businesses under uncertain conditions."

They continued, "Now companies must interpret the law on their own, and if an accident occurs, they must abide by the court's judgment," expressing serious concern about "how to handle the confusion and disorder among companies."

Furthermore, regarding the "installation of dedicated safety and health organizations," the construction industry claimed, "Only companies ranked around 50th in construction performance evaluation can realistically do this," but the government maintained the existing regulation of "rank 200." The government's intention is to broaden the scope because of the high number of fatal accidents in construction.

However, the association said, "If the ranking is around 200, even the headquarters staff is only about 10 people, so we want to ask if the government really thinks it is possible to have a dedicated safety and health organization," adding, "It is obvious that this will lead to formalistic and evasive operations, so it is difficult to understand what the government expects by pushing the bill."

The association concluded, "For the Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act to be effective and contribute to industrial accident prevention, such matters must be properly incorporated," and "We expect a progressive change in the government's stance."

Meanwhile, the government previously held a briefing at the Government Seoul Office on the 9th to unveil the draft Enforcement Decree of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. The draft will be finalized after a public comment period from the 12th of this month to the 23rd of next month.

The serious accidents subject to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act are divided into serious industrial accidents and serious civil accidents. Serious industrial accidents refer to industrial accidents such as ▲one or more deaths ▲two or more injured persons requiring treatment for six months or longer due to the same accident ▲three or more occupational disease cases within one year caused by the same harmful factor.

If it is found that the management responsible persons and business owners of a workplace where a serious accident occurred have failed to fulfill obligations such as establishing a safety and health management system for accident prevention, they become subject to punishment under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

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