[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] A survey revealed that more than 8 out of 10 construction companies oppose the enactment of the Construction Safety Special Act. The Construction Safety Special Act includes provisions that assign safety management responsibilities to all construction entities, including clients, designers, contractors, and supervisors.
The Korea Employers Federation and the Korea Construction Association announced on the 1st that, according to the 'Corporate Awareness Survey on the Enactment of the Construction Safety Special Act' conducted from January 26 to the 4th of last month targeting 193 construction clients and contractors, 85.0% of the responding companies opposed the enactment of the Construction Safety Special Act.
The Construction Safety Special Act, which imposes safety management obligations on each construction party and penalties in case of fatal accidents, is currently pending in the National Assembly. Calls for its implementation have grown louder following incidents such as the HDC Hyundai Development Company Gwangju collapse accident.
The reasons for opposition included "overlap with the Industrial Safety and Health Act regulations" (42.1%) and "no need for separate legislation due to the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act" (40.9%).
Additionally, 92.9% opposed the provision that directly punishes clients if a death occurs due to violation of obligations. The most cited reason, at 46.7%, was "imposing responsibility on clients for accidents beyond their control."
Regarding business suspension measures or fines imposed on contractors in the event of a fatal accident, 92.0% considered them unreasonable. The biggest reason, at 31.8%, was "industry expulsion due to suspension of new orders when administrative sanctions are imposed."
When asked about regulations that need improvement upon the enactment of the Construction Safety Special Act, the largest portion, 36.7%, selected "excluding obligation violations with low relevance to fatalities from criminal punishment and administrative sanctions." This was followed by "deleting overlapping provisions with the Industrial Safety and Health Act," "easing the level of administrative sanctions," and "introducing penalties for workers."
As a practical improvement measure to prevent construction accidents, the most common response (37.8%) was "imposing obligations and responsibilities appropriate to the roles of each construction party."
Im Wootak, head of the Safety and Health Division at the Korea Employers Federation, pointed out, "When a fatal construction accident occurs, companies face five layers of sanctions: fines, punishment of management officials, punishment of perpetrators, work stoppage, etc. This can lead to serious consequences such as suspension of business activities."
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