earticle

영어

Safety and health of workers is the most important factor in work conditions. But conditions of health and safety in work place in Korea is not good enough comparing with other OECD nations. Still, the rate of the dead per 10,000 workers is 0.41‱, which is double comparing to Japan and German. The Occupational Safety and Health Act(OSHA) Section 10(2) provides that a business owner should report industrial accident occurred etc. to the Labor Minister according to the its Executive Order. The OSHA Section 72(1), furthermore, provides that a business owner who did not report the accident etc. prescribed in the OSHA Section 10(2) above, or who did report falsely should be punished by a fine not exceeding ten million won. The fine is not a criminal penality but only a administrative sanction. An employer, however, generally intend to conceal industrial accidents. There are some reasons in concealment of industrial accidents. For example, increase of insurance due, a possibility of restriction on participation in a bid concerned etc. will be reasons of the concealment. An introduce or establishment of a criminal penality clause in OSHA could be one of helpful means to reduce the concealment of industrial accidents.