0 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.000 Korea Occupational Saftey and Health Agency 1 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:10.000 According to the 2022 Industrial Accident Status Survey conducted by the Korea Occupational Saftey and Health Agency 2 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:16.000 the number of industrial accident victims was 133,480 with 2,223 fatalities 3 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 representing a 6.22% increase in the number of victims 4 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.000 and a 6.875% increase in fatalities compared to the previous year 5 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:31.000 In reponse, to acheive safe and healthy work environment, and furthermore a pleasant country 6 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:35.000 by aiming to reduce the fatality rate 7 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:41.000 specifically to the OECD average level of 0.29% by 2026 8 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:46.000 through initiatives such as establishing saftey and health workplaces and implementing stringent penalties for major accidents 9 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.000 the government is actively focusing on preventing industrial accidents 10 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.000 To establish safe and healthy workplaces 11 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.000 it is essential to understand the key provisions of the Occupational Saftey and Health Act 12 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.000 which regulates saftey and health management systems 13 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 Let's see these provisions together 14 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:09.000 First, the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted to establish standards for occupational safety and health 15 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:13.000 clarify responsibilities to prevent occupational accidents 16 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:15.000 and create pleasant working environments 17 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:21.000 to ensure and enhance the safety and health of workers providing labor 18 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.000 In this context, occupational accidents refer to 19 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.000 fatalities, injuries, or illnesses suffered by workers due to 20 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:35.000 construction, equipment, raw materials, gases, vapors, dust 21 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.000 or other work-related factors 22 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.000 Occupational accidents that result in severe consequences such as death 23 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.000 or affect multiple victims 24 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:48.000 are termed as major accidents, categorized as Level 0 by the Ministry of Employment and Labor 25 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.000 The legislation concerning occupational safety and health in South Korea 26 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:57.000 originated from the Labor Standards Act 27 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.000 which is the first labor law enacted and promulgated in May 1953 28 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:05.000 This law established standards for machinery, equipment, facilities, and working environments at workplaces 29 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:10.000 and mandated the appointment of safety and health managers 30 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:16.000 outlining ten provisions on safety and health under Chapter 6 of the same act 31 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.000 As the era of industrialization progressed, the significant increase in occupational accidents prompted 32 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000 the establishment of regulations such as the Labor Health Management Rules in 1961 33 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.000 and the Labor Safety Management Rules in 1962 34 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:33.000 providing specific guidelines for safety and health management 35 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:37.000 In 1964, the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act was enacted 36 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 to establish a compensation system for workers 37 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 The 1980s witnessed a surge in major accidents due to the enlargement of machinery and equipment in workplaces 38 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.000 and the increased use of hazardous substances 39 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.000 leading to the emergence of new occupational diseases 40 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.000 This highlighted the severity of human and economic losses 41 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.000 Consequently, there was a growing demand for systematic and independent laws 42 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:06.000 to clarify the responsibilities of workplaces for industrial accidents and proactively protect workers 43 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:12.000 As a result, in 1981, the government separated industrial safety and health section 44 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.000 from the Labor Standards Act, enacting the Industrial Safety and Health Act as an independent law 45 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.000 Subsequently, in 1990, the Occupational Safety and Health Act underwent comprehensive revision 46 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:26.000 to address persistent issues in workplace safety and health management 47 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:34.000 In 2020, the law was amended extensively to expand its coverage 48 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.000 to various forms of employment and to effectively support 49 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:44.000 workers' right to stop work during hazardous situations 50 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 aiming to create conditions where workers can work safely and healthily 51 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:55.000 However, despite these efforts, industrial accidents such as deaths from argon gas asphyxiation in Hyundai Heavy Industries, jamming accidents at the Taean Thermal Power Plant 52 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:01.000 and warehouse fires at logistics construction sites 53 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:07.000 as well as citizen-related disasters including the humidifier disinfectant incident or the Sewol ferry disaster on April 16 54 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:14.000 continue to pose societal challenges 55 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:19.000 To prevent these major industrial and citizen-related disasters 56 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:27.000 Act on Serious Accidents Punishment was enacted in 2021 and implemented it from January 27, 2022 57 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:33.000 The Occupational Safety and Health Act applies to all businesses as a principle 58 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:40.000 However, depending on the degree of harm, the type of business, and the number of permanent employees 59 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:48.000 the Presidential Decree may specify certain types of businesses or workplaces where all or part of this law does not apply 60 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:56.000 The responsible party under the Occupational Safety and Health Act is the business owner, who employs workers to carry out business activities 61 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:02.000 Although the initial scope of protection under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 62 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.000 was limited by defining only workers as beneficiaries 63 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:11.000 the emergence of new types of labor not covered under the Labor Standards Act necessitated 64 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:17.000 the strengthening of protection for these individuals and the expansion of responsibilities 65 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:21.000 under the Occupational Safety and Health Act to prevent occupational accidents effectively 66 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:29.000 Therefore, on January 16, 2020 Article 1 of the Occupational Saftey and Health Act was comprehensively revised 67 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:40.000 to expand the scope of responsibility and protection under the law, changing the protected party from employees to those providing labor 68 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:48.000 The responsible parties now include CEOs, construction project clients, and franchise headquaters, among others 69 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:54.000 Under Article 14 of the Occupational Saftey and Health Act 70 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:02.000 company CEOs are madated to develop plans regarding saftey and health, subsequently be submitted to the boards if directors for approval 71 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.000 and furthermore they are obligated to ensure the thorough implenmentation of these plans 72 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Companies with greater than 500 permanent employees or ranked within the top 3 in the previous year's construction capacity evaluation, or construction companies within the top 1000, are subjected to this requirement 73 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:22.000 The contents include saftey and health activities from the previous year, saftey and health management policies and plans, 74 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:29.000 personnel and roles in saftey and health management systems, and saftey and helath-related facilities and costs 75 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:37.000 Moreover, under Article 67 of the Occupational Saftey and Health Act, construction project clients with a total cost exceeding 5 billion won are 76 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:44.000 obligated to tkae measure throughout the entire process, from planning and design to construction, which is to prevent industrial accidents. 77 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:53.000 During the planning stage, a basic saftey and health management plan includung project overview, budget, schedule, as well as measures to reduce harmful risks, must be prepared 78 00:06:53.000 --> 00:07:01.000 During the designing phase, this must be provided to the designer 79 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:07.000 who then prepares a design saftey and health management plan 80 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:11.000 including a reasonable construction period and cost estimation for safe work, and ensure its confirmation 81 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:18.000 And in the construction stage, the initial construction contractor must provide these plans 82 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:25.000 to reflect it in the construction safety and the management plan review 83 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:30.000 and then confirm implementation 84 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:39.000 Finally, under Article 79 of the Occupational Saftey and Health Act, for industries with greater than 200 franchise establishments 85 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:49.000 franchise headquaters are obligated to take measures for occupational accident prevention for franchisees and their employees 86 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:59.000 This include those listed under the food service as a major category and those classified as convenience stores within the major category as retail 87 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:03.000 in the franchise disclosure system 88 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:14.000 To prevent occupational injuries, franchise headquaters must provide education on saftey and health regarding franchise operations to franchisees at least once a year 89 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:23.000 Additionally, franchise headquaters must provide information on saftey and health regarding 90 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:30.000 facilities, machinery, raw materials, or products installed or supplied by the franchise headquaters to franchisees 91 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.000 Now let's have a look at the scope of protection 92 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.000 A worker, as defined in Article 2, Paragraph 1, Clause 1 of the Labor Standards Act 93 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:46.000 refers to an individual providing labor for the purpose of receiving wages, regardless of the type of occupation 94 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:56.000 As per the amendment of the Occupational Saftey and Health Act, the scope of protection has been expanded to include specialized workers and delivery personnel working through delivery apps 95 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:03.000 Through comprehensive amendment on January 16, 2020 and partial amendment on November 19, 2021 96 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:08.000 the occupations that primarily provide labor continuosly for one business, receive compensation for their livelihood 97 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 and do not employ others when providing labor, have met the criteria 98 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:20.000 Special types of laborers, such as insurance planners, postal insurance recruiters, construction machinery operators, 99 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:31.000 direct drivers, tutoring instructors, golf caddies, delivery drivers, quick service drivers, loan recruiters, credit inspectors, replacement drviers, 100 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:42.000 home appliance installers and repairers, truck drivers, and software technicians, are included in the protection scope 101 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:49.000 According to Article 91-15 of the newly established Occupational Accident Compensation Insurance Act 102 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:55.000 the term "specialized worker" has been replaced with "labor provider" 103 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.000 effectively from July 1, 2023 104 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:06.000 And specific types of construction machinery are listed in Annex 1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Construction Machinery Management Act 105 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:33.000 including bulldozers, excavators, loaders, scrapers, dump trucks, cranes, motor graders, rollers, roadside safety equipment, concrete batching plants, concrete finishers, concrete sprayers, concrete mixer trucks, concrete pumps, asphalt mixing plants, asphalt finishers, asphalt sprayers, gravel spreaders, 106 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:45.000 crushers, air compressors, borers, pile drivers, gravel fillers, dredgers, special construction machinery, and tower cranes 107 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:55.000 Employers receiving labor from these special types of workers are obligated to take necessary safety and health measures to prevent occupational accidents 108 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:03.000 Employers must provide safety restoration education to certain workers such as construction machinery operators or golf caddies 109 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:10.000 Failure to comply with safety and health obligations 110 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:18.000 may result in fines of up to 10 million won for violation of safety and health measures and up to 5 million won for violation of safety and health education requirements 111 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:30.000 Moreover, according to Article 78 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, intermediaries who facilitate delivery through delivery apps or similar platforms 112 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:40.000 are obligated to take safety and health measures to prevent occupational accidents especially for those who drives motorcycles 113 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:51.000 Failure to comply may result in fines of up to 10 million won