GOYANG, South Korea— Recently in South Korea, the need for safety management across industrial sites has increased significantly with the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act(SAPA). As fatal accidents on industrial sites have become a major social issue, the National Assembly has passed SAPA which took effect from January 27 2022. Although SAPA is not much different from the established Occupational Safety and Health Act as both Acts are aimed at preventing serious accidents while ensuring the safety of workers, it has expanded the range of those applicable disasters to a great extent with much enhanced punishment for violating the law. If the cause of a serious accident is found to be negligence in safety management, SAPA imposes criminal liability against business owners or responsible managing officers who fail to ensure the safety of their business operations. Furthermore, the Act imposes monetary penalty to businesses or institutions who fail their supervisory duties and punitive damages of up to five times the actual damages.
According to the statistics from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, more than half of the deaths from accidents in 2021 were from the construction industry, and the number of injured accounted for more than 25% of the total. In addition, the deaths in the construction industry contribute to nearly half of the 446 fatalities in the first half of 2022.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK