From Next Year, Laboratory Accident Victims Can Receive Up to 2 Billion KRW Compensation

Government to Significantly Improve Laws and Related Systems on Laboratory Safety, Effective January 1

University laboratory. Stock photo. Not related to the article.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] When an accident occurs in public research institutes or university laboratories and the medical expenses exceed the insurance payout, individuals will no longer bear the cost. Additionally, the compensation limit for laboratory accident safety insurance will be significantly raised from 100 million KRW to 2 billion KRW.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 28th, the government held a Cabinet meeting on the same day and approved the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the "Act on the Creation of a Safe Laboratory Environment." This law will take effect from January 1st of next year.

The amendment includes standards for the scope and support procedures of medical expenses that the institution can independently cover when the treatment costs for research activity workers injured in laboratory accidents exceed the insurance payout. In other words, it requires the heads of research entities (institution heads, university presidents, etc.) to make efforts to remedy accident damages and to support treatment costs exceeding the insurance compensation for severely injured laboratory accident victims. This means that if the compensation limit of laboratory safety insurance is exceeded, individuals will no longer have to bear the treatment costs, whereas previously they had to bear increased personal expenses. The amendment also includes provisions to revise the penalty criteria for failure to subscribe to insurance.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Science and ICT raised the minimum compensation limit for laboratory safety insurance medical benefits (treatment costs) for student research activity workers (science and engineering university students and graduate students) from the current 100 million KRW to 2 billion KRW, a 20-fold increase, through the amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the "Laboratory Safety Act," which will be promulgated and enforced on the 31st. They also revised the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act through consultations with related ministries to allow student researchers participating in research and development (R&D) projects among science and engineering university students and graduate students to be covered by industrial accident insurance, effective from January 1st of next year.

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