Tougher punishments for industrial accidents, but prevention still lacking

 

Kim Ju-young, head of the Democratic Party’s task force on industrial accident prevention, and Park Hae-cheol, the task force’s secretary, listen to a briefing from officials during a visit to a DL Construction apartment construction site in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 14, where a worker recently died after a fall. [YONHAP]

 
On Monday, the government announced a comprehensive labor safety plan, following President Lee Jae Myung’s pledge to eradicate serious workplace accidents. Yet the measures remain focused on punishment rather than prevention.
 
Companies with three or more fatalities in a year will face fines starting at 3 billion won, up to 5 percent of annual operating profits. Repeat offenders could even be deregistered from the construction industry. Firms found responsible for major accidents will also face disadvantages in bank lending reviews.
 
The government aims to reduce Korea’s fatal accident rate from 0.39 per 10,000 workers to the OECD average of 0.29 by 2030. Still, critics argue the plan lacks structural solutions to prevent accidents from occurring in the first place.
 
This weakness was evident in the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which took effect in 2022. That law mandated at least one year in prison and fines of 1 billion won or more for employers after a fatal accident. The impact was limited. Even with the new measure — imposing fines of 3 billion won on companies with negative operating profits — its effectiveness is uncertain.
 

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On job sites, accidents cannot always be avoided through employer measures alone. Employers may invest in safety and training, but the law requires them to prove these efforts, and compliance depends on workers themselves. With the number of foreign workers rising, language and cultural barriers further complicate safety management.
 
The plan does include preventive measures. Ordering parties will be required to set fair budgets and realistic construction schedules, and extreme weather such as heat waves will justify extensions. The government also pledged more than 2 trillion won by 2026 to support safety facilities at small businesses and to add 3,000 industrial safety inspectors. These are significant steps toward prevention.
 
But the core of the strategy still lies in punitive measures. Whether such policies can produce meaningful change remains uncertain, and concerns persist that heavy sanctions could discourage investment.
 

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during an on-site labor-management roundtable on preventing industrial accidents, held at the SPC Samlip Shihwa plant in Siheung, Gyeonggi, on July 25. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

 
Nothing is more important than human life. Yet stronger punishment alone cannot solve the problem. Structural reforms are needed to prevent accidents in the first place. Beyond wielding harsher penalties, Korea must improve workplace culture, encourage labor-management self-regulation and promote technological innovation. Expanding workers’ rights to refuse unsafe tasks also deserves review.
 
The government’s plan falls short because it emphasizes punishment over prevention. Reducing industrial accidents will require more than regulation. A culture of safety must take root on the ground.


This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.