Former Seoul Facilities Corporation Chairman Jo Seong-il Preparing a Book on the Serious Accidents Punishment Act After Retirement

Former Seoul Facilities Corporation Director Cho Seong-il, the nation's top safety expert, is preparing a book on the Serious Accidents Punishment Act after establishing a safety research institute.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Jo Seong-il, former director of Seoul Facilities Corporation and the top expert in bridge safety in Korea (age 64), is preparing a professional book addressing the issues and improvement measures related to the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

After graduating from Hanyang University with a degree in civil engineering and passing the technical civil service exam, he began his public service career at Seoul City. He retired after serving as the head of the Safety General Headquarters, a first-grade position, and while lecturing on safety at the University of Seoul, he was appointed director of Seoul Facilities Corporation in 2021. At that time, Seoul city officials highly praised him, saying, "The corporation’s director is someone with the highest expertise and leadership."

However, Jo resigned voluntarily with his term remaining until July and is now sweating over writing manuscripts for more than 12 hours a day to produce a book related to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act after establishing a safety-related research institute.

In a recent phone interview with a reporter, Jo said, “Since the Serious Accidents Punishment Act was enacted hastily, it is true that there are several problems,” and added, “I am preparing a book to improve the current legislative issues.”

As a safety expert, Jo attracted attention during his tenure by fully guaranteeing the ‘right to refuse dangerous work’ for the first time in a public institution ahead of the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act in January this year, aiming to create a safer working environment for on-site workers.

When workers judged that inspection, repair, or maintenance work was dangerous or unsafe, they were allowed to exercise their ‘right to refuse work’ by stopping their tasks at any time before or during the work and notifying the manager.

Once the right to refuse work was exercised, the relevant work was immediately halted, and work was resumed only after implementing necessary safety and health measures such as installing safety facilities and deploying additional personnel.

This measure received positive evaluations within the corporation and is reportedly being reviewed by related organizations such as Seoul Metro.

In preparation for the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act last year, the corporation established a safety and health management system and made every effort to identify and eliminate hazardous factors in real time through daily safety briefings, a hazard and near-miss reporting reward system, and open forums on serious accidents.

The Serious Accidents Punishment Act stipulates that management officials who neglect their duty to ensure safety and health when a serious accident occurs can be sentenced to imprisonment for more than one year or fined up to 1 billion KRW.

Accordingly, heads of institutions with many construction sites, such as Seoul Facilities Corporation and Seoul Metro, remain tense as accidents can occur on-site at any time.

Amid this, there has been speculation that Jo’s early resignation might have been influenced by concerns about potential accidents occurring on-site during his tenure.

A corporation official said, “Former Director Jo was highly regarded for fostering a learning atmosphere among employees and his organizational leadership during his tenure, so it is regrettable that he did not complete his term. We have heard that he is still working hard on lectures for University of Seoul students and publishing safety-related books,” expressing expectations.

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