Restaurant where meat was prepared while smoking in the kitchen... Fine only 500,000 won

No Joint Liability Rule for Smoking in the Workplace

A citizen witnessed employees smoking and handling meat in the kitchen of a restaurant located in Incheon and reported it, but only a fine of 500,000 KRW was imposed.

On the 20th, Seo-gu, Incheon City, recently imposed a fine of 500,000 KRW on a certain barbecue restaurant for violating the Food Sanitation Act. A citizen who happened to see kitchen staff smoking while handling meat on the 10th of last month from a building across the street took photos and reported it to the district office.

Photo by JTBC Broadcast Screen Capture

The incident was also covered by JTBC's "Case Manager." The informant claimed, "Two to three employees took turns smoking. After smoking, they handled the meat without washing their hands." The submitted photo showed an employee smoking in front of a tray piled high with meat.

The restaurant owner reportedly explained, "It was a short-term employee who smoked," and added, "Smoking did not occur every day."

Lawyer Baek Seong-moon, who appeared as a panelist during the broadcast, said, "Handling meat with hands that have been smoking and then serving it to customers is a serious hygiene issue. If the restaurant owner knew about this behavior and neglected it, closing the business would be appropriate; if they were unaware, the employees are causing significant damage to the establishment."

After an on-site inspection, Seo-gu determined that the workplace was not being properly maintained in terms of cleanliness and imposed a fine. A Seo-gu official stated, "Aside from cleanliness issues, no other violations were found." However, Seo-gu explained that there is no separate joint penalty regulation related to smoking inside business premises under the Food Sanitation Act, so other penalties besides the fine for non-compliance with cleanliness are difficult to impose.

The restaurant has been designated as a non-smoking area since July 2013, for over 10 years. At that time, smoking bans were implemented in restaurants, pubs, and cafes larger than 150㎡, and in 2015, the ban was expanded to all restaurants, pubs, and cafes. For simple smoking violations, fines of 500,000 KRW for the first offense, 1,000,000 KRW for the second, and 1,500,000 KRW for the third and subsequent offenses are imposed respectively.

In August 2022, a franchise of a famous chicken chain caused controversy by delivering chicken fried together with cigarette butts. Due to public criticism at the time, the owner eventually had to close the business.

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