On-site Safety and Health? No Answer in Directives and Regulations... Finding the Solution in 'Self-Regulation Prevention' from Advanced Countries

KOSHA Hosts Seminar Introducing UK and Germany Risk Assessment

Notable Shift from 'Prescriptive Regulation' to 'Voluntary Regulation' Approach

An international seminar seeking solutions for establishing a self-regulation prevention system was held in advanced countries in occupational safety and health.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor (Minister Lee Jeong-sik) and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (Chairman Ahn Jong-joo) announced that on the 3rd at 2 p.m., they held an international seminar at KINTEX to establish a domestic self-regulation prevention system based on the experiences and cases of major advanced countries.

At this seminar, safety and health experts from the UK, Germany, and other countries participated to share the history and settlement process of each country's risk assessment system and discuss ways to activate risk assessment in Korea.

International Seminar on Self-Discipline Prevention Systems.

Professor Jeon Gyu-chan from Loughborough University in the UK introduced the historical background of the UK health and safety system and how the UK transitioned from a 'prescriptive regulation' method to a 'goal-based regulation' or 'self-regulation' method.

Mr. Sven Team, head of the Central Prevention Department of the German Social Insurance Association, introduced the process through which the self-regulation prevention system was established based on the history of German law enforcement and suggested policy directions that Korea should pursue to activate risk assessments in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Dr. Erik Hollnagel, a world-renowned scholar in safety management, gave a presentation on "The Substance and Challenges of Risk Assessment," discussing improvement measures for safety management to enhance the practical operation of risk assessments in the field.

Professor Emeritus Yoon Wan-chul of the National Institute of Science and Technology emphasized "system management" and proposed realistic improvement methods for risk assessment to raise the safety level of domestic workplaces.

About 150 safety and health stakeholders from labor, management, and government sectors in Korea attended this international seminar. The attendees evaluated that based on excellent overseas cases and experiences, Korea can establish a more practical foundation for a paradigm shift to a self-regulation prevention system.

Chairman Ahn Jong-joo of the Agency stated, "To establish a self-regulation prevention system centered on risk assessment, labor and management must together build a safety management system that identifies and improves risk factors on their own," and added, "To strengthen the self-regulation capabilities of vulnerable small and medium-sized enterprises, the Agency will actively support consulting for building safety and health systems."

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