Korean Serious Accidents Act: Nine Duties and Enforcement Data

Workplace Safety Field Guide 3 of 4: Serious Accidents Act duties and official data

The review of Korea's Serious Accidents Punishment Act recorded forty-nine guilty judgments across 1,252 cases. Of those cases, 917 were still under investigation when the figures were published. The judgment count alone cannot establish the final enforcement outcomes.

For a workplace with 5 to 49 regular employees, the Act has applied since January 27, 2024, and executives need to check whether the safety and health management system required by Article 4 of the Enforcement Decree operates in daily work.

The figures below come from the National Assembly Research Service review published on August 28, 2025. Many cases were still in progress at that snapshot, so the figures are not the current final judgment count.

Workplace coverage

The Act took effect for workplaces with at least 50 regular employees on January 27, 2022 and for workplaces with 5 to 49 regular employees on January 27, 2024. The serious industrial accident provisions exclude workplaces with fewer than five regular employees, but duties under the Occupational Safety and Health Act remain. Counting regular employees is itself a legal question; a headcount taken on one convenient date is not the method.

Figure 1. Effective dates for the serious industrial accident provisions by regular workforce size. Separate Occupational Safety and Health Act duties may still apply below five employees.

The nine duties under Article 4

1. Set safety and health objectives and a management policy for the business or workplace.
2. Establish a dedicated organization when the business falls within the size and industry conditions in the decree.
3. Create a process to identify and improve hazards, then check whether it is implemented.
4. Allocate and execute budgets for the people, facilities, equipment, and improvements needed for safety and health.
5. Give safety and health managers the authority and budget they need, and evaluate their work.
6. Appoint the safety and health professionals required by law.
7. Hear worker views at least once every half-year and implement necessary improvements.
8. Prepare and test a manual for imminent danger and serious industrial accidents.
9. Set criteria and procedures for evaluating contractor capability to prevent accidents.

The dedicated-organization duty is conditional. It covers categories defined by the decree, including workplaces with at least 500 regular employees and construction companies ranked within the top 200 by construction capability, and other duties can vary with industry and workforce conditions.

What the 1,252-case review actually says

The National Assembly Research Service reviewed all 1,252 cases opened after the Act took effect. At publication, 917 cases, 73 percent of the total, were still under investigation. The 917 figure is not a count of referred cases, and reading it as one distorts the entire enforcement picture.

Among cases that reached judgment, 49 ended in guilty verdicts. Prison terms were imposed in 47, and 42 of those were suspended, an 85.7 percent suspended-sentence rate. The average prison term was about one year and one month, and the average corporate fine was KRW 72.8 million across 50 corporations, calculated after excluding one KRW 2 billion fine.

Figure 2. Case status after three years of the Act. Source: National Assembly Research Service, August 28, 2025. The 917 cases were under investigation, not referred cases.

With most of the 1,252 cases still open, 49 judgments provide limited evidence of final outcomes. Workplaces need records showing how risk assessment findings affected budgets and corrective actions, how worker feedback was reviewed and followed up, and whether contractor criteria were applied.

Records for the nine duties

Check whether the Act applies and whether the conditional dedicated-organization duty applies. Then assign an owner and supporting records to each of the nine Article 4 areas, linking related records. Reflect risk assessment findings in budgets and corrective action, and retain worker feedback with its review result and follow-up. Apply contractor evaluation criteria in practice and test the emergency manual against real working conditions. Record an owner and a next review date for incomplete actions.

Condition signals after corrective action

After corrective action on equipment, check whether the improvement is maintained. XyloZero facility monitoring records acoustic, vibration, and environmental signals and flags unusual patterns to help prioritize equipment for the next inspection. The nine executive duties and statutory procedures must still be followed separately.

Official sources

• Article 4 of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act Enforcement Decree, Korean Law Information Center
• Three-year review of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, National Assembly Research Service

Previous guide: Korean risk assessment in five steps

Next guide: Korean Heat-Work Rules: Break Duties by Apparent Temperature