Meeting with Minister Lee Jeong-sik, Small Business Sector Calls for Extension of SME Act Grace Period (Comprehensive)

27th, Meeting with Small Business Owners Invited by Minister of Employment
Delivering 34 Vivid On-Site Difficulties

The small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector met with Lee Jeong-sik, Minister of Employment and Labor, to request an extension of the grace period for the Serious Accident Punishment Act for workplaces with fewer than 50 employees.

On the 27th, at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul, the "Meeting with Minister Lee Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Employment and Labor and Small Business Owners" was held. Minister Lee (fourth from the left) and Kim Ki-moon, President of the Korea Federation of SMEs (center of the front row), along with other attendees, are taking a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Korea Federation of SMEs]

The Korea Federation of SMEs held a ‘Meeting with SMEs Invited by Minister Lee Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Employment and Labor’ on the afternoon of the 27th at the Federation’s headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.

About 20 representatives from SME organizations and related associations and cooperatives attended the meeting, including Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, and Lee Jeong-han, President of the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association. From the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Minister Lee was joined by Choi Hyun-seok, Director of Planning and Coordination, Ryu Kyung-hee, Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Headquarters, and other relevant directors.

The first request presented by the Federation to Minister Lee was to extend the two-year grace period for the Serious Accident Punishment Act for workplaces with fewer than 50 employees. The request was made by Bae Jo-ung, Chairman of the Korea Ready-Mixed Concrete Industrial Cooperative Federation.

Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, stated, “From January 27 next year, the Serious Accident Punishment Act will be enforced even for workplaces with fewer than 50 employees. While SMEs agree that worker safety is paramount, there are 830,000 such workplaces, and most are still unprepared. Especially in small workplaces, if the owner is detained or imprisoned, there will be no one to manage accident recovery, which will ultimately force the business to close. Therefore, an extension of at least two years is absolutely necessary,” he emphasized.

According to an ‘Emergency Survey on the Application of the Serious Accident Punishment Act to Workplaces with Fewer than 50 Employees’ conducted by the Federation last month, 83.7% of workplaces with fewer than 50 employees expressed concerns about the application of the Act. The results of the ‘Survey on the Response Status and Cases Regarding the Serious Accident Punishment Act for Workplaces with Fewer than 50 Employees’ conducted in August also showed that 80% of these workplaces were unprepared for the Act’s enforcement, and 85.9% appealed for an extension of the grace period.

The Federation stated, “It is necessary to establish government support for safety professionals such as ‘Joint Safety Managers for SMEs’ to implement practical measures to prevent serious accidents in small workplaces.”

Earlier that morning, at the Emergency Economic Ministers’ Meeting and Export Investment Measures Meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho urged the National Assembly to pass a legislative amendment within the year to extend the grace period for the application of the Serious Accident Punishment Act to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees. In response, Chairman Kim said, “Future measures, support for hiring safety professionals, and expanded consulting must include bold budget support. SMEs will also strive to create safer workplaces by participating in consulting and increasing the Federation’s own investments.”

Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jeong-sik is attending and speaking at a meeting with small and medium-sized business owners held at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on the 27th. Photo by Yonhap News

Minister Lee emphasized, “The life and safety of workers are values that cannot be exchanged for anything else. I urge thorough risk assessments to identify any hazards inside and outside the workplace and to make efforts to ensure safety. The government will also focus support on consulting, education, and technical guidance to quickly establish safety and health management systems for companies with fewer than 50 employees.”

He added, “Regarding the application of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, since the law has been proposed, I will actively support discussions between the ruling and opposition parties to ensure effective job retention, creation, and prevention of serious accidents.”

Additionally, SME representatives conveyed 34 urgent field difficulties related to excessive labor regulations, including expanded support for SME safety costs, improvement of working hour systems for reasonable determination and distribution of working hours, allowance and maintenance of the comprehensive wage system, abolition of foreign workforce quotas and expansion of permitted industries, and improvement of the minimum wage system.

Minister Lee urged SME representatives, “I ask for strict compliance with labor-related laws to protect vulnerable workers in the labor market. Please pay special attention to those who cannot raise their voices against injustices such as wage arrears and workplace harassment, including young workers and non-regular workers.”

He continued, “Even as times change, unchanging values can become trends again, and that is the value of labor. A society that respects the value of labor is a government national agenda and a timely task that we must fulfill for current and future generations.”