[A Sip of Books] The Framework of the Serious Accident Punishment Act That Everyone from CEOs to Employees Must Know

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly resonate with the reader’s heart, creating a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor’s note

The author discusses the misunderstandings surrounding the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and provides clear standards for ambiguous terms. The book begins with an explanation of the concepts of ‘business managers, etc.’ and ‘duty to ensure safety and health,’ which are most frequently cited as reasons for criticism. Although the author does not consider the definition clause of ‘business managers, etc.’ to be well-crafted from a legislative drafting perspective, as a legal scholar, he offers the most reasonable interpretation possible, taking into account harmony with the overall legal order. The book also provides detailed explanations of the scope of application of serious industrial accidents, the duty of business owners and business managers, etc. to ensure safety and health, and the establishment of measures to prevent recurrence. Additionally, it explains how serious industrial accidents apply in subcontracting, service contracts, and consignment relationships?where safety accidents have mainly occurred in the field?and what obligations the duty bearers have in such relationships.

The Serious Accidents Punishment Act primarily imposes criminal penalties on individual business owners or corporations and public institutions’ business managers, etc., who cause serious accidents by violating the ‘duty to ensure safety and health,’ and holds individual business owners or corporations and institutions liable for statutory additional compensation up to five times the actual damage amount. Although the Act consists of only 16 articles and is not lengthy, it differs from existing Industrial Safety and Health Act and other safety-related laws and normative structures in terms of the duty bearers of the duty to ensure safety and health and the legal form of penalties, and introduces statutory additional compensation, which is still unfamiliar in our legal system. Therefore, various interpretative controversies are expected during its enforcement process. - From

Traditionally, when casualties occurred due to industrial accidents in Korea, labor inspectors conducted initial investigations for violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, and the police conducted initial investigations for criminal negligence causing death or injury under the Criminal Act. After these investigations, the prosecution would file a single indictment combining the offenses under the theory of ideal concurrence and/or real concurrence, and the court would rule on violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act and criminal negligence causing death or injury. However, even when imprisonment was sentenced for these crimes, most cases resulted in suspended sentences, and in the case of corporate business owners, only fines were possible, with most fines not exceeding 10 million won. As a result, there was criticism that the existing criminal sanctions under the Industrial Safety and Health Act were insufficient to deter crimes, especially for corporations. For example, in some cases where convictions were handed down for violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, such as the socially problematic Guui Station screen door incident, the fine imposed on the corporate business owner was only 30 million won. Besides the light level of punishment for violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, the complex multi-layered management structure of corporate enterprises made it practically difficult to hold senior management criminally responsible, which also lowered the deterrent effect. - From

Article 1 (Purpose) This Act aims to prevent serious accidents and protect the lives and bodies of citizens and workers by stipulating the punishment of business owners, managers, public officials, and corporations who operate businesses or workplaces, public facilities, and public transportation or handle harmful raw materials or manufactured goods, and cause human casualties by violating safety and health measures obligations. - From

Article 2, Item 8 of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act defines a ‘business owner’ as “a person who operates their own business or a person who operates a business by receiving labor from others.” The term ‘business owner’ is used in various laws. For example, the Labor Standards Act defines an employer as “a business owner or a person in charge of business management, or any other person acting on behalf of the business owner concerning matters related to workers” (Article 2, Paragraph 1, Item 2), and the Industrial Safety and Health Act defines a ‘business owner’ as “a person who operates a business employing workers” (Article 2, Item 4). - From

Structure of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act | Written by Kwon Oh-sung | Saebit | 340 pages | 18,000 KRW