36 Domestic Economic Organizations "Significant Confusion Expected Upon Enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act"

36 Economic Organizations Including Korea Employers Federation and Industry Associations Submit Joint Economic Proposal on Enforcement Decree of Serious Accidents Punishment Act to Government

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Major domestic economic organizations announced on the 23rd that they submitted a joint petition containing the concerns of the business community to the relevant government departments ahead of the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act scheduled for January next year.

The Korea Employers Federation, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, Federation of Korean Industries, Korea International Trade Association, Korea Federation of Medium-sized Enterprises, and 30 industry-specific associations disclosed the petition on the same day, pointing out that the government’s proposed enforcement decree is comprehensive and unclear regarding the obligations of management responsible for both serious industrial accidents and serious public accidents, making it difficult for companies, the obligated entities, to clearly understand the standards.

They emphasized that if the Serious Accidents Punishment Act is enforced as it stands, it will cause significant confusion, and that supplementation of the proposed enforcement decree is inevitable.

Regarding the main points of the petition, they first argued that severity criteria should be established for occupational disease cases. According to the enforcement decree, minor diseases that can recover within a few days could be considered serious industrial accidents, and considering the consistency with the serious public accident regulation requiring treatment for more than three months, it is essential to include severity criteria for occupational disease cases in the enforcement decree.

They also requested improvements to the application standards for public-use facilities. Since gas stations and charging stations have auxiliary facilities operated by separate operators (such as vehicle repair shops and car washes) and idle spaces (such as parking lots), the application criteria for public-use facilities (workplace area of 2,000㎡ or more → building floor area of 1,000㎡ or more under the Building Act) should be reset considering the characteristics of these businesses.

They asked for clarification of the obligations related to establishing safety and health management systems. They stated that unclear and ambiguous wording should be deleted, the provision on the placement of professional personnel (Article 4, Clause 3) conflicts with existing laws and needs revision, and that hiring an industrial health physician at every workplace is practically impossible and therefore should be removed.

Additionally, they demanded concretization of the ambiguous concept and obligations of management responsibility under the law, and actively requested that the enforcement decree consider adding related provisions allowing companies and management to be exempt from responsibility in cases of serious industrial accidents where the fault of workers is clear.

Considering that small and medium-sized workplaces have poor manpower and financial conditions, making compliance with management responsibilities under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act practically impossible, they added that the enforcement decree should include not only regulations on corporate responsibility but also specific government support provisions.

Lee Dong-geun, Vice Chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, stated, "The government’s proposed enforcement decree raises concerns about side effects where only management is criminally punished without effective prevention of serious accidents. Therefore, the opinions of the industry should be specifically reviewed and reflected." He emphasized, "Without legal amendments, the comprehensive and ambiguous obligations of management and excessive punishments cannot fundamentally solve the problem, so a prompt reconsideration of the re-amendment of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act is necessary."

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