'6 Months of the Serious Accident Punishment Act' Seoul City Inspects 2,493 Sites... Follow-up Management and Dedicated Organization Established

Inspection Completed for Legal Obligations at 966 Major Citizen Disaster Facilities Including Underground Stations and Daycare Centers
First Inspection Completed for 1,527 Major Industrial Disaster Facilities for Worker Safety... On-Site Inspections Until Early August

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 1st that it has completed the first half safety obligation compliance inspection for 2,493 facilities subject to serious accident inspections in order to fulfill the obligations under the Serious Accident Punishment Act and is moving forward with follow-up management while establishing a dedicated organization.

According to Seoul City, the inspection of 966 serious citizen accident facilities directly related to citizen safety was conducted from June to July. The relevant departments of the facilities conducted self-inspections to verify whether the legally mandated obligations, such as establishing safety management plans and evaluating the safety management capabilities of entrusted organizations, were properly fulfilled, and then the Safety General Division re-checked and inspected them.

For the 1,527 facilities subject to safety and health obligations related to serious industrial accidents involving Seoul City workers, inspections are being conducted in two phases. The first phase, a workplace self-inspection using a checklist, was completed by the end of June, and the second phase, on-site inspections, is currently underway.

As a result of the inspection process, Seoul City judged that there are still confusions and difficulties in fulfilling the legal obligations on-site due to the ambiguity of the Serious Accident Punishment Act and the absence of detailed guidelines. Therefore, it once again urged the government to improve the system. In February, Seoul City had already proposed to six ministries, including the Ministry of Employment and Labor, to clarify the ambiguities of the Serious Accident Punishment Act and to prepare detailed guidelines.

Seoul City is also promoting additional policies in line with the fulfillment of safety obligations stipulated by the Serious Accident Punishment Act. One such policy is the “Employee Reporting and Reward System,” implemented since February this year, to activate the discovery and action on hazardous and dangerous factors in public facilities, public construction sites, and city workplaces. Six employees who contributed to the discovery of hazardous and dangerous factors in the first half of this year were selected and commended, and the city plans to actively encourage this system to establish the prevention of serious accidents as a daily practice.

Furthermore, Seoul City is promoting the introduction of an “Integrated Safety and Health Management System” to comprehensively manage the status of serious accident target facilities and legal obligation fulfillment. In particular, it is expected that a system will be established to preemptively filter out problematic companies by accumulating accident histories related to subcontracting, outsourcing, and consignment projects.

Meanwhile, with the passage of Seoul City’s organizational restructuring plan through the city council, the departments responsible for industrial site safety and citizen safety management, which had been separate, will be unified into one organization, and a dedicated serious accident prevention division, the “Serious Accident Prevention Division,” will be newly established.

Baek Il-heon, Seoul City’s Safety General Officer, said, “Since the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, we have been promoting various policies to prevent serious accidents over the past six months. We will promptly address the improvement needs identified through this inspection, and with the establishment of a dedicated department, we will build a more precise safety and health management system to ensure that not a single accident occurs. We will also continue to closely cooperate with related ministries to quickly resolve the on-site difficulties caused by the ambiguities of the Serious Accident Punishment Act.”

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