"Autonomy and Prevention Over Punishment"…Major Accident Reduction Roadmap Announced

New Paradigm for 'Self-Discipline Prevention System' Proposed
Fatal Accidents Increase Despite Enforcement of Serious Accident Punishment Act
Reduce Accidents to OECD Average Level by 2026
Serious Accident Punishment Act Also Under Review... TF to Be Formed in First Half of Next Year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The government has announced a ‘Major Accident Reduction Roadmap’ focused on autonomy and prevention rather than punishment. This new paradigm of a ‘self-regulation prevention system’ was proposed after worker fatality accidents did not decrease even following the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act established during the Moon Jae-in administration. The government plans to strengthen ‘risk assessment,’ where companies autonomously identify and control risk factors, aiming to reduce South Korea’s major accident fatality rate?which currently ranks in the lower tier among OECD countries?to the average level.

On the 30th, Lee Jeong-sik, Minister of Employment and Labor, announced the Major Accident Reduction Roadmap at the Government Seoul Office. This is one of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s national agenda items, and the Ministry of Employment and Labor has been preparing the roadmap by extensively gathering opinions from advanced countries’ cases and safety and health experts from labor and management.

The core of this roadmap is to significantly strengthen risk assessment, the key element of the self-regulation prevention system, to establish a system that prevents major accidents from occurring in advance. Risk assessment is a system where labor and management jointly identify hazardous and dangerous factors within the workplace and establish improvement measures. Although introduced in 2013, it has become virtually obsolete due to inadequate related laws and systems.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor will strengthen the system by focusing on identifying key risk factors suitable for company size and work characteristics, making it mandatory for large companies from next year and for small and medium-sized enterprises from 2024 in stages. The Industrial Safety and Health Act will be amended to introduce corrective orders or penalties for workplaces that fail to conduct risk assessments, and if a major accident occurs despite conducting a risk assessment, this will be recorded as investigation material to be reflected in prosecution and court sentencing. Through this, the government plans to drastically reduce the current fatal accident rate in South Korea from 0.43 to the OECD average level of 0.29.

To support this roadmap, the government will form an ‘Industrial Safety and Health Law Improvement Task Force (TF)’ in the first half of next year to prepare government improvement plans for the Industrial Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. The Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which has drawn significant interest from both management and labor, is expected to clarify ambiguous punishment requirements and adjust the scope of penalties to the level of advanced countries.

Minister Lee said, "Tasks that can be immediately implemented within the current laws and budget will be swiftly initiated from next year to achieve visible reduction results," and added, "For tasks involving law amendments and budget, detailed annual implementation plans will be established and regular progress checks will be conducted to ensure smooth execution."

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