The Ministry of Employment and Labor said, “We will innovate the general occupational safety supervision administrative system along with mandatory risk assessment, and prepare an improvement plan for the Serious Accident Penalty Act through negotiations on the ‘TF Industrial Health and Safety Improvement Act’ .”
Relates to mandatory risk assessment
[기사 내용]
ㅇ (Maeil Business News) In fact, countries with continental law systems, such as Germany and Japan, except the UK, do not punish companies even if they do not carry out a risk assessment. arbitrary enforcement of the law, and ensuring the expertise of supervisors, it is just another regulation and cannot guarantee effectiveness.”
ㅇ (Financial News) The government plans to implement ‘mandatory risk assessment’ for large companies with 300 or more employees from next year to reduce deaths due to industrial accidents. However, the business world expressed concern that it could become ‘rooftop regulation’.
ㅇ (Korea Economic Daily) The business world expressed concern that the mandatory risk assessment could become a ceiling regulation. The Korean Federation of Employers pointed out, “The enforcement of risk assessment will be another regulation for SMEs that are not even prepared for the Major Disaster Act.”
[고용부 설명]
□ Risk assessment is a system where labor and management jointly identify harmful and risk factors in the workplace and establish and implement improvement measures.
ㅇ Advanced countries are already establishing and implementing self-discipline prevention systems based on risk assessment.
ㅇ Not only the UK, but also Germany and Japan have made risk assessment mandatory under the ruling that risk assessment is a key way to manage safety in the workplace, and have punitive provisions for offences.
* (Germany) Preliminary rectification order, fine for non-compliance, criminal penalty for repeated non-compliance (Japan) Fine of up to 500,000 yen when health and safety officials breach risk assessment obligations
□ Plans to innovate the general occupational safety supervision and administration system, such as safety and health laws, supervision systems, and support systems, to support the establishment of risk assessment sites along with the mandatory risk assessment.
ㅇ The safety and health standards rules (currently 679 articles) are applied by classifying them into preventive rules that can be treated selectively by reflecting the penal rules that must be followed and conditions and the characteristics of individual workplaces.
*(Example) Penal Regulations: “Measures must be taken to prevent falls for working at height”
**(Example) Precautionary regulations: Details of installation standards such as safety guides, safety belts, or fall prevention nets for fall prevention are provided through notices and technical guidelines.
ㅇ Regular supervision, which has been implemented based on detection and punishment, will be converted to risk assessment and inspection to support the SME self-discipline prevention system through consultation.
ㅇ The basis for internalizing risk assessment will also be strengthened by expanding and strengthening risk assessment training for managers and supervisors familiar with on-site processes and operations, and improving the capacity of industrial safety supervisors.
□ Accordingly, even if risk assessment is made mandatory, it is expected that the burden of individual workplaces will not increase.
Measures to Improve the Serious Accident Penalty Act
[기사 내용]
ㅇ (Maeil Business Newspaper) Instead of taking specific measures to improve the Serious Accident Penalty Act, instead, he is willing to reinforce the sanctions of business owners, such as criminal punishment for habitual, repeated and multiple fatal accidents, the principle of zero tolerance for breaches of key safety rules, and overpayments for industrial accident insurance premiums in the event of a serious disaster, were also identified as a problem.
ㅇ (Financial News) However, the business world pointed out that there is no concrete improvement plan for the Serious Accident Penalty Act, and instead, the penalty for frequent and repeated accidents and multiple deaths is increasing.
[고용부 설명]
□ Regarding the Penalty Act for Serious Disaster, there are various opinions among labor and experts, such as strengthening criminal punishment, converting to economic punishment (punishment), and merging with the Sanan Act.
□ Strengthening the effectiveness of preventing serious disasters and promoting security investment,
ㅇ Early ’23 It is intended to draw up a plan to improve the sanctions method through discussions with experts based on cases in developed countries and the current status of investigations and prosecutions of the Penalty Act for Serious Disaster.
Regarding the self-discipline prevention system
[기사 내용]
ㅇ (Kyunghyang Shinmun) The labor world criticized the roadmap for relying too much on the company’s ‘will to self-discipline’. It is said to be difficult to make an impact on reducing actual severe disasters because it broadly addresses existing regulations. In particular, even if the responsibility for the serious disaster is clear, the level of punishment is likely to be reduced.
[고용부 설명]
□ The self-discipline prevention system is based on sub-standards and guidelines presented by the government, and labor and management work together to establish self-regulations that are tailored to the characteristics of the workplace.
ㅇ It is a safety management method that uses risk assessment as a key tool to identify and eliminate risk factors in the workplace, and in the event of an accident, strictly evaluates the adequacy of the company’s preventive efforts and places responsibility for the result.
□ It is difficult to see it as deregulation as it gives the authority to establish self-regulation at a level similar or equivalent to the sub-norms and guidelines presented by the government when considering features and workplace conditions, and he asks thoroughly. security management in accordance with risk assessment.
* It means a transition from a uniform and rigid regulation of batting average to a more flexible and active self-discipline
□ For the self-discipline prevention system to function properly, various health and safety operators must fulfill their responsibilities and duties in accordance with their respective roles and authorities.
ㅇ Accordingly, the plan is to clarify the previous responsibility by clarifying the roles and responsibilities of safety and health operators.
□ In the event of a major disaster, the cause will be thoroughly identified, and the appropriateness of corporate prevention efforts through risk assessment will be regularly assessed Strict responsibility for the outcome will be strictly enforced Although responsibility is clear, there is no possibility that the level of punishment will be reduced.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor intends to establish a TF for the implementation of the road map for reducing serious accidents at the Occupational Health and Safety Headquarters to follow subsequent measures for the road map, such as establishing and supporting a self-discipline prevention system in the future .
Enquiries: TF Serious Accident Reduction Roadmap (044-202-8912), Industrial Accident Prevention Supervision Policy Officer, Ministry of Employment and Labor
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* ‘언론보도 해명’ 코너 게시물은 해당 부처가 공식적으로 발표한 설명ㆍ해명자료를 바탕으로 작성되었으며, 원문을 함께 전재 합니다.
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