Issues Regarding The Enactment Of The Serious Accidents Punishment Act Of Korea And Strategy For Companies In Korea
Published date | 08 June 2021 |
Subject Matter | Corporate/Commercial Law, Employment and HR, Corporate and Company Law, Health & Safety, Employee Rights/ Labour Relations |
Law Firm | DR & AJU International Law Office |
Author | Young Kyu KIM and Jae-Young JUNG |
On January 26, 2021, the Korean government enacted the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (hereinafter referred to as the "SAPA"). The SAPA will go in effect on January 27, 2022, with a one-year grace period. The Korean National Assembly has indicated that the existing Occupational Safety and Health Act ("OSHA") has not properly provided the expected measures such as prevention of, follow-up management on, and damage restoration from life-threatening accidents occurring in businesses or at workplaces and these legal deficiencies have been responsible for the recurrence of large-scale accidents sacrificing human lives.
Aiming to address the above problems, the SAPA provides that aggravated penalty will be imposed to business owners and/or executives of businesses or workplaces where serious workplace accidents have occurred. The SAPA intends to ensure the right to safety for the workers and citizens by establishing sound corporate culture and safety management system of companies.
I. Main Contents of the SAPA
1. Purpose of SAPA
The SAPA is purported to prevent serious accidents and to protect the life of citizens and workers by providing for the legal ground to punish business owners and executives along with the companies in the event they are in breach of their duty to ensure safety and health in the course of operating their business or workplace, public facilities, public transportation means, or handling materials or products harmful to the human body.
2. "Serious Accident" Defined
"A serious accident" prescribed in the SAPA is classified into two types:
- Serious Industrial Accident: This type of accidents refers to 'any death, injury, or illness as defined under the SAPA, which are caused by work-related structures equipment, raw materials, gas, steam, dust, or caused in the course of performing works or other duties.'
- Serious Public Accident: This type of accidents refers to a 'serious accident (death, injury or illness as defined under the SAPA) caused by a defect in design manufacture, installation, or management of certain raw materials or products, public facilities or public transportation means'.
3. Who is Liable?
The SAPA prescribes that business owners and/or executives are obliged to ensure the safety of employees and others in the businesses or at the workplaces that are practically controlled, operated or managed by them or a company/institution under their control.
In particular, the SAPA intends to address the loopholes of the existing OSHA, which allowed the business executives of the original contractor to impute their liability regarding accidents by engaging third parties (sub-contractors, service providers, others who have been delegated such work). The SAPA expands the scope of punishment so that...
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