Starting in April next year, South Korean companies where three or more workers die in industrial accidents within a single year will face fines of up to 5% of operating profit. Workers will also gain a broader right to stop dangerous work, and a reward system will be created for reporting violations of safety law.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said on the 27th that the revised Occupational Safety and Health Act, follow-up legislation to the government's comprehensive workplace safety measures, was promulgated that day.
Under the revision, from April 28 next year, companies that breach safety and health obligations and record three or more deaths within a year will be fined up to 5% of their average operating profit over the previous three years. Loss-making companies, or those for which 5% of operating profit falls below 3 billion won ($2.1 million), can still be fined up to 3 billion won. The fines will go entirely into the industrial accident compensation insurance fund and be used to finance prevention efforts.
Companies with repeated serious accidents could be forced out of the market. A new provision allows the labor minister to ask relevant agencies to revoke or cancel a company's business registration if it commits another violation after receiving two or more suspension orders within three years.
Workers' authority to halt work will also expand. From April 28 next year, they will be able to stop work and evacuate not only when the risk of an industrial accident is imminent but also when such a risk is feared. Subcontracted workers will be able to demand a work stoppage directly from the prime contractor. The grounds for the labor minister to order a work stoppage will also expand to cover serious injury accidents, such as those leaving a worker unconscious, and situations where a collapse or explosion is feared.
The policy control tower and monitoring network will start operating earlier, on Jan. 28 next year. A Safe Workplace Committee, chaired by the labor minister and including labor, management and government representatives, will be launched to serve as the control tower for drawing up industrial accident prevention plans. A reward system will also be created to pay informants who report violations of the safety law. Specific payment criteria will be set in subordinate statutes.
"We will thoroughly prepare the subordinate statutes and enforcement system so that these new changes can create safe workplaces," Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said.