Government to Ease Criteria for Companies Supporting Industrial Accident Prevention

Office for Government Policy Coordination, Regulation on Regular Workers Improved to Be 'Employment-Friendly'

The employment size criteria for companies eligible to receive government subsidies for industrial accident prevention will be relaxed.

On the 17th, the Regulatory Innovation Promotion Group decided to jointly implement the "Employment-Friendly Improvement Plan for the Criteria on the Number of Regular Employees," focusing on this matter, with six ministries (Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs). The plan aims to prevent the paradox where companies avoid hiring due to the increasing "sandbag" regulations that arise as the number of regular employees increases. Regulations based on the number of regular employees will be differentiated by industry, and grace periods will be extended.

Job seekers are looking at a job fair bulletin board. Photo by Yonhap News

Regular employees refer to workers who work regularly at a workplace. Many laws refer to them by various names such as employees, workers, or laborers. However, when the number of regular employees exceeds a certain threshold, companies have tended to use dispatched personnel or outsourcing to replace employment in order to reduce regulatory burdens, causing side effects.

In response, since September last year, the Promotion Group, together with five economic organizations and related ministries, has identified regulatory cases that unreasonably set criteria based on the number of regular employees.

The Regulatory Innovation Promotion Group first recommended that the Ministry of Employment and Labor improve the subsidy payment criteria for the "Clean Workplace Creation Support Project," a project for industrial accident prevention. The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that it has completed revising related regulations to additionally reflect a "sales revenue criterion" that considers industry-specific characteristics alongside the previously applied number of regular employees criterion. This means that even if a company has more than 50 employees, it can receive support if its sales revenue does not exceed the small business scale standard.

The Ministry of Justice plans to relax the personnel criteria allowed when Korean semiconductor companies investing overseas conduct training for foreign employees in Korea.

Previously, the number of domestic technical trainees from overseas-invested companies was limited to within 8% of the number of domestic regular employees of domestic companies, with a maximum of 200 people. However, the allowed number will be partially relaxed for companies in advanced industries such as semiconductors.

Additionally, even if the rate tier of the "Employment Stability and Vocational Competency Development Project Insurance Premium" increases due to employment growth, its application will be deferred for three years. This is to give companies time to adapt by easing their burden and thereby encourage employment growth.

A government official stated, "In the future, when government ministries establish or strengthen regulations, they will specify in the Regulatory Impact Analysis that employment-friendliness must be reviewed to enhance the effectiveness of this improvement plan."

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