"No More Incidents Like the Gwangju Disaster"... Party, Government, and 청 추진 Construction Safety Special Act

Compensation for Operating Losses to Be Categorized Based on Scale

Yoon Ho-jung, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the 'Party-Government-Blue House Euljiro Livelihood Issues Meeting' held at the National Assembly on the 22nd, delivering a greeting./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] The Democratic Party and the government have decided to enact a Special Construction Safety Act to prevent disasters like the collapse of a demolished building in Gwangju. Compensation for business losses due to COVID-19 will be provided by assessing the actual scale of damage and offering segmented support.

On the 22nd, Jin Seong-jun, the Democratic Party’s Euljiro (Protecting 'Eul' Livelihood Practice) Committee Chair, held a press conference following the party-government-civil meeting on Euljiro livelihood issues at the National Assembly, stating, "We agreed that the Special Construction Safety Act, which can be considered a serious accident law for the construction sector, must be legislated."

He added, "Although some issues overlap with the Serious Accident Punishment Act, coordination within the government has already been completed, and a new bill has been proposed. There are also points of conflict with the Industrial Safety and Health Act, but an agreement between the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Employment and Labor has been reached, confirming that there are no other issues in enacting the law."

The bill, primarily proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Gyo-heung on the 16th, includes provisions requiring the client to provide appropriate construction costs and duration, and the contractor to be responsible for safety management, assigning safety management responsibilities commensurate with the authority of each participant in the construction project. If safety management duties are neglected resulting in a fatal accident, construction businesses, construction engineering businesses, and architects may face business suspension of up to one year or fines proportional to their sales. Furthermore, if the client, designer, contractor, or supervisor neglect safety management duties under this law causing a fatal accident, they may be sentenced to imprisonment for up to seven years or fined up to 100 million won.

Chairman Jin stated, "Due to the continuous occurrence of construction site accidents such as the recent Gwangju incident, we agreed on the need to legislate as soon as possible."

Regarding the COVID-19 Loss Compensation Act, which has shifted from retroactive measures to sufficient support, he said, "We decided to provide strong support to businesses subject to gathering bans and business restrictions, and also to sufficiently support industries facing management crises such as travel, tourism, and accommodation, which are not directly subject to quarantine measures but have suffered significant damage."

He added, "We agreed to provide support amounts segmented as much as possible by comprehensively considering the actual damage level and sales volume." Financial preferential support for low-credit individuals and expanded incentive support for small business owners who have closed their businesses to enable them to re-challenge will also be implemented.

The party, government, and civil groups also agreed on the necessity of a win-win cooperation bill for online platforms, considering the growing difficulties faced by self-employed individuals, and decided to cooperate moving forward.