8 out of 10 Domestic Companies Say "Amend the Serious Accident Punishment Act with Low Effectiveness"

"Despite Increased Safety Personnel and Budgets, Fatal Accident Reduction Remains Minimal"
"Administrative Waste Must Be Addressed; Government Should Shift from Punishment to Guidance and Support"

Eight out of ten domestic companies mentioned the need to amend the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (hereinafter referred to as the SAPA). There were opinions that excessive paperwork causing administrative waste should be corrected, and that the government's supervisory policy should shift from punishment to guidance and support.

The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) announced the results of the "Corporate Safety Investment Status and Serious Accident Prevention Policy Improvement Survey" on the 19th. This survey was conducted to understand corporate awareness and improvement directions regarding workplace safety management status, difficulties, and the effectiveness of serious accident prevention policies, three years after the enforcement of the SAPA. The survey was conducted from December 23 of last year to January 7 of this year, with 202 domestic companies participating.

Sixty-three percent of the responding companies said that the number of personnel performing safety tasks increased compared to 2021, before the SAPA was enforced. Workplaces with more than 1,000 employees saw the largest increase, averaging 52.9 people, while workplaces with fewer than 50 employees increased by only 1.9 people. Seventy-two percent of the responding companies also reported an increase in safety management budgets. The increase was an average of 62.76 billion KRW for workplaces with more than 1,000 employees, while workplaces with fewer than 999 employees saw increases below 1 billion KRW. KEF explained, "The survey results showed that small-scale companies rely on government consulting and financial support due to poor financial conditions, limiting their ability to secure professional personnel and invest in improving working environments."

However, doubts were raised about the effectiveness. Forty-two percent of companies responded that the government's industrial safety policies were not effective in reducing fatal accidents. Despite a significant increase in industrial accident prevention budgets since the enforcement of the SAPA, the number of fatal accidents has decreased slowly. Additionally, 50% of the responding companies said that supervisory policies should shift from punishment to guidance and support. KEF stated, "Large workplaces are selected for government supervision every year, but during inspections, the SAPA is applied uniformly without considering on-site applicability, leading to repeated unreasonable situations."

The biggest difficulty in performing safety management tasks was "administrative waste due to excessive paperwork," accounting for 62%, followed by "lack of safety personnel and budget" at 32%, and "lack of interest and cooperation from on-site workers" at 31%. KEF analyzed that these results stem from the ambiguity of the SAPA regulations. Professional personnel who should focus on on-site safety management are instead engaged in preparing procedural documents, manuals, and semi-annual inspection evidence, wasting unnecessary administrative effort.

Under this perception, companies emphasized the need to amend the SAPA (81%). The most urgent improvement was "specifying the obligations of management regarding safety and health-related laws" (47%). This was followed by "easing criminal penalties (over one year) for business owners and management" at 41%, and "clarifying the scope of responsibility when subcontracting or outsourcing" at 38%.

Lim Woo-taek, head of KEF's Safety and Health Division, said, "Companies are increasing personnel and budgets to prevent serious accidents, but so far, the effect of reducing fatal accidents due to the enforcement of the SAPA is not clear. For corporate safety investments to lead to a real reduction in industrial accidents, safety laws with low effectiveness, such as the SAPA, must be promptly revised."