Changwon District Prosecutors' Office Indicts Duseong Industry CEO for 'Violation of Serious Accident Punishment Act'... First Case Nationwide

Changwon District Prosecutors' Office. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The first case of a company representative being indicted for violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act has emerged.

The Changwon District Prosecutors' Office Criminal Division 4 (Chief Prosecutor Lee Seung-hyung) on the 27th indicted A (43), the CEO of air conditioner parts manufacturer Duseong Industry, without detention on charges of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (industrial accident injury). This is the first case in which the prosecution applied the Serious Accidents Punishment Act for indictment.

A is accused of causing 16 workers to suffer from occupational diseases such as toxic hepatitis by failing to fully implement safety measures, including the installation of local exhaust ventilation systems, despite using a cleaning agent containing the hazardous substance trichloromethane during the manufacturing process of air conditioner parts from January last year to February this year (charges of industrial accident injury under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act).

The Changwon District Prosecutors' Office has been investigating a major industrial accident case transferred from the Busan Regional Employment and Labor Office, in which a total of 29 workers from Duseong Industry in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, which received cleaning agents from company C, and company B, an automobile parts manufacturer in Gimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do, were diagnosed with occupational diseases (toxic hepatitis) between February and March this year.

After thoroughly examining the facts and legal grounds from multiple perspectives, the prosecution recognized that Duseong Industry had not established the "safety and health management system" required by the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. Consequently, CEO A was indicted without detention for violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and the Industrial Safety and Health Act (failure to implement health measures).

Earlier, the Busan Regional Labor Office had applied for an arrest warrant for A in March. However, the Changwon District Court dismissed the warrant, acknowledging the seriousness and evidence of the crime but ruling that since substantial evidence had already been collected, there was no risk of evidence destruction.

Regarding company B, the prosecution confirmed that it had established a "safety and health management system," including procedures for hearing employee opinions on safety and health, identifying and improving hazardous and risky factors, and budgeting for accident prevention. Therefore, CEO D (65) was cleared of charges under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act but was indicted without detention for violating the Industrial Safety and Health Act, including failure to implement health measures such as leaving a degraded local exhaust ventilation system unattended in the workplace.

The Busan Regional Labor Office also applied for an arrest warrant for D last month, but the prosecution dismissed the application, judging that there was room for dispute.

Company C’s CEO E (72), the manufacturer of the cleaning agent, was arrested and indicted on the same day for violating the Chemical Substances Control Act by falsely labeling the cleaning agent’s material safety data sheet (MSDS, a document containing necessary information for the safe use and management of chemical substances) and supplying the cleaning agent to the two companies.

Article 2, Clause 1 of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act defines a serious accident as including both serious industrial accidents and serious civil accidents. Clause 2 of the same article defines serious industrial accidents under the Industrial Safety and Health Act as accidents where ▲ at least one death occurs ▲ two or more injuries requiring treatment for six months or longer occur from the same accident ▲ three or more cases of occupational diseases such as acute poisoning occur within one year due to the same hazardous factor.

The prosecution explained that toxic hepatitis, the symptom experienced by the workers in this case, qualifies as an occupational disease subject to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. Since three or more occupational disease cases occurred within one year due to the same hazardous factor (trichloromethane), the case falls under the scope of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act even though there were no deaths.

A representative from the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office stated, "Going forward, the prosecution will respond swiftly and strictly to serious industrial accident crimes that threaten the lives and safety of the public, while ensuring appropriate criminal punishment in accordance with the principle of legality and other criminal law principles."

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