Gwangju Employers Federation: "Over 200 Provisions Penalize Business Owners, Stifling Corporate Activity"

Criminal Penalties for Business Owners Raise Job Security Concerns for Workers

The Gwangju Employers Federation has pointed out that there are around 200 provisions in domestic employment, labor, and industrial safety laws that directly penalize business owners (employers), arguing that excessive criminal regulations are stifling business activities.

On December 4, the Gwangju Employers Federation issued a press release stating, "As of August, there are a total of 357 criminal provisions across 25 laws in five areas: employment stability, prohibition of employment discrimination, labor standards, labor-management relations, and industrial safety and health. Of these, 233 provisions (65%) directly penalize business owners (employers), and 19 out of the 25 laws contain at least one provision for penalizing business owners."

The law with the most criminal provisions is the Industrial Safety and Health Act (82 provisions), followed by the Labor Standards Act (72 provisions), and the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act (31 provisions). In the case of the Labor Standards Act, 68 out of 72 criminal provisions (94%) target business owners for punishment. The Fair Hiring Procedure Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the Elderly Employment Promotion Act, the Fixed-term Worker Act, the Employee Participation Act, and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act apply criminal penalties exclusively to business owners, creating a structure of criminal liability that is biased against employers.

The Gwangju Employers Federation stated, "Regulating even disputable or minor issues through criminal penalties leads to passive management and weakened labor management by employers. Although criminal penalties should be considered as a last resort, employment and labor-related laws have normalized punishment-focused regulations. Decriminalization, replacing criminal penalties with administrative sanctions except in unavoidable cases, is necessary."

They added, "In particular, in the area of industrial safety and health, which has the highest number of criminal provisions, small and medium-sized enterprises must quickly establish proactive and active safety strategies-moving away from passive compliance-in order to turn the expansion of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act to workplaces with five or more regular employees this year from a crisis into an opportunity and to avoid excessive penalties. An integrated approach that links improved funding, enhanced corporate image, and strengthened investor trust is essential."

Furthermore, they emphasized, "Broad criminal penalty-focused regulations unnecessarily create ex-convicts among companies operating in challenging environments and discourage investment and hiring decisions by small and medium-sized enterprises, ultimately increasing job insecurity for workers. As the government is working to reduce the burden on businesses and rationalize economic criminal penalties, the outdated and unrealistic punishment-focused structure within employment and labor-related laws must also be reformed."

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