[Urgent Survey of Top 1000 Companies] Expectations for the Yoon Government's Pro-Business Drive to Ease the Serious Accidents Punishment Act

If the person in charge has taken sufficient measures
Proposed amendment to reduce punishment severity
Authority shifted from Ministry of Employment and Labor to Ministry of Justice
Focus on resolving corporate management difficulties

33 regulatory improvements in new industries including drones, advanced industry education, and healthcare

President Yoon Suk-yeol (second from left) visited POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks in Jeollanam-do on the afternoon of April 21 as part of his "Promise and Livelihood Walk" while serving as president-elect. He posed for a commemorative photo in front of the No. 1 blast furnace with Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeollanam-do (first from left), Choi Jeong-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group (third from left), and Kim Hak-dong, Vice Chairman of POSCO. Photo by the Transition Committee Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The political sphere is drawing industrial attention as it pushes for amendments to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act in line with President Yoon Seok-yeol's 'pro-business' drive. Although opposition party resistance and complex procedures remain before the amendment passes, the fact that the administration has brought up the 'legal amendment'?the biggest obstacle to deregulation?early in its term is significant.

According to political sources on the 15th, on the 10th, Park Dae-chul, a member of the People Power Party, proposed a bill to reduce the penalty for business owners and management officials who have taken sufficient measures after a serious accident occurred. Park served as the chair of the Environment and Labor Committee during the first half of the 21st National Assembly.

Attention is drawn to the fact that the authority to reduce penalties and announce standards for serious accident prevention is assigned to the Ministry of Justice rather than the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the main department in charge. This clearly indicates that the purpose of the amendment is to ease regulations that hinder management rather than focusing on worker safety. The industrial sector shows a generally positive response, as the deregulation policy points of the ruling party, government, and presidential office are focused on practically alleviating corporate management difficulties.

The core of the law is that if a serious accident resulting in death occurs in companies with 50 or more regular employees (or construction companies with construction costs exceeding 5 billion won) that fail to fulfill their 'safety and health management obligations,' management can face imprisonment of up to one year or fines up to 1 billion won. Although ambiguity remains regarding the evaluation criteria for 'safety and health management obligations,' the trend is toward reducing penalties, which companies regard as meaningful 'deregulation.'

Beyond the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, the Yoon Seok-yeol administration has launched a noticeable deregulation drive within a month of taking office. According to a government announcement on the 13th, the government held a Regulatory Reform Committee meeting at the Government Seoul Office on the 10th and decided to improve 33 on-site regulations in new industries such as drones, advanced industrial education, electric vehicles, and bio-healthcare. Specifically, they plan to ease 12 regulations in energy and new materials, 5 in unmanned mobility, 5 in information and communication technology (ICT) convergence, and 10 in bio-healthcare.

Deregulation of advanced industrial university education also draws attention. In advanced industrial fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, the criteria for graduate school enrollment have been relaxed so that meeting only the 'faculty securing rate' among the 'four major educational conditions'?faculty, teachers, school land, and basic property for profit?allows for a net increase in graduate school quotas. Previously, all four conditions had to be met. Additionally, joint academic programs between universities in advanced industrial fields can now autonomously decide credits through inter-university agreements. According to the industry, the government has been consistently advised that, due to difficulties in securing master's and doctoral-level talent in advanced industries in countries like the U.S. and the U.K., curricula are being enhanced to allow students to take courses at multiple universities. The Yoon administration's response is seen as accurately addressing private sector suggestions. It is regarded as a model case of 'public-private joint' regulatory reform.

On the first day of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which allows for the punishment of management officials when serious accidents such as worker fatalities occur, a construction site of an apartment in Gyeonggi-do on the 27th./Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Experts identify future tasks for the Yoon administration, including establishing regulatory review mechanisms for member-proposed legislation and balancing 'good regulations' like safety and health regulations with 'deregulation.' In particular, to prevent cases like when the political sphere pushed through the Labor Three Acts (Labor Union Act, Public Officials Union Act, Teachers Union Act) under the pretext of implementing International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and then pressured seven government ministries to prepare enforcement decrees for the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, establishing a 'regulatory review mechanism for member-proposed legislation' is an urgent priority.

Kim Jin-guk, a visiting professor at Yonsei University Graduate School of Economics and former president of the Korea Regulatory Studies Association, said, "The core of regulatory reform is that regulations protecting 'safety, hygiene, and health' and deregulation that drives 'economic growth, innovation, and job creation' must be achieved simultaneously. What the Yoon administration does well is refraining from using the term 'business friendly.' Unlike the Moon Jae-in administration's Euljiro Committee, which formed a discourse that led to swift legislative amendments through member-proposed bills and made it impossible to address issues through enforcement decrees, another approach is to leverage government assets in the private market, allowing startup entrepreneurs to create new markets through digital transformation, thus preserving the 'art of operation.'"