94% of Workplaces with Fewer Than 50 Employees "Not Prepared for Serious Accidents Law"

As the government and the ruling party are discussing a possible extension of the grace period for applying the Serious Accidents Punishment Act exclusively to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, a recent survey has revealed that the majority of these businesses are not yet prepared to comply with the law.

Representatives of small and medium-sized enterprise organizations, including the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business and the Korea Specialty Contractors Association, held a press briefing on the 31st at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business to urge the extension of the grace period for applying the Serious Accident Punishment Act to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees. Jung Yunmo, the full-time vice president of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, is reading the statement. Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@

On December 10, the Korea Employers Federation (KEF) announced that, according to a survey conducted among 1,053 companies with fewer than 50 regular employees, 94% of respondent companies stated that they are still in the process of preparing for the law's implementation. Additionally, 87% of companies responded that it would be difficult to meet the legal obligations by the deadline.

The Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which took effect on January 27, 2022, stipulates that if a serious accident such as a worker's death occurs at a workplace with 50 or more employees (or at a construction site with a contract value of 5 billion KRW or more), business owners and others who fail to fulfill their accident prevention duties may face at least one year of imprisonment or a fine of up to 1 billion KRW.

While the law was originally scheduled to apply to workplaces with fewer than 50 regular employees and construction sites with a contract value of less than 5 billion KRW starting January 27, 2024, the government, the presidential office, and the People Power Party are currently pursuing a legislative amendment to extend the grace period for these businesses by an additional two years.