Administrative

Serious Industrial Accidents Lawyer

Serious Industrial Accidents Lawyer | Employer Obligations and Prosecution Standards Explained

Summary

The Serious Accidents Punishment Act (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률) imposes criminal liability directly on the "management responsible person" — typically the CEO or a designated safety executive — when a death or serious injury occurs due to a failure to establish and implement a safety and health management system. This is separate from, and in addition to, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (산업안전보건법) liability of on-site supervisors. Prosecutors focus on whether documented safety systems, budget allocation, and hazard response procedures existed before the accident, not just on the accident itself. Businesses with 5 or more regular employees are covered, with a phased application schedule for smaller employers.

Administrative · Corporate Criminal Related Law: Serious Accidents Punishment Act Related Law: Occupational Safety and Health Act CEO / Safety Officer Defense

Serious Industrial Accidents | What Counts as a 'Serious Industrial Accident'

The Act does not punish every workplace accident. It applies only when the incident meets specific statutory thresholds for severity, and only when it results from a failure of the safety management obligations set out in the statute (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제2조).

Art. 2(2)(a)

Death of one or more workers
A single work-related death arising from an industrial accident is sufficient to trigger the Act. There is no minimum number of victims required for this category, unlike the injury and illness categories below.

Art. 2(2)(b)

Two or more workers with injuries lasting 6+ months
The Act applies when two or more workers suffer injuries or illnesses from the same accident that require six months or more of treatment. This is assessed by treatment period, not by the initial diagnosis alone, so ongoing medical records matter.

Art. 2(2)(c)

Three or more workers with an occupational disease within one year
If three or more workers develop the same designated occupational disease (e.g., from exposure to a hazardous substance) within one year, this can qualify as a serious industrial accident even without a single acute accident event.

Art. 4

The core obligation: safety and health management system
The central legal question in every case is whether the business had established and actually implemented a safety and health management system — including a dedicated budget, personnel, and hazard-response procedures — before the accident (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제4조, 제5조). An accident occurring despite a genuinely functioning system is treated differently from one occurring where no system existed on paper or in practice.

Distinguishing This From Ordinary Occupational Safety Cases

Most workplace accidents are handled solely under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which targets the on-site supervisor or site manager. The Serious Accidents Punishment Act is reserved for cases meeting the thresholds above, and it reaches upward to the CEO or equivalent management-level person specifically because the alleged failure is systemic — a lack of budget, personnel, or process — rather than a single supervisor's on-the-spot mistake.

Serious Industrial Accidents | The Nine Core Safety Obligations Investigators Check First

When a serious accident occurs, investigators do not start by asking what happened on the day of the accident. They start by requesting documentation of what the company had in place beforehand. Enforcement Decree Article 4 breaks the general duty under Article 4 of the Act into specific, checkable items.

Setting safety goals and a dedicated budget

The company must set annual safety and health targets and allocate a specific budget to carry them out (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 시행령 제4조 제1호, 제4호). A budget line that exists only on paper, with no evidence of actual disbursement, is a frequent point of dispute in these investigations.

Appointing personnel to carry out safety duties

A person or team must be specifically tasked with implementing safety and health management, and given the authority and resources to act on hazards they identify. Investigators typically interview this person to test whether the appointment was substantive or nominal.

Periodic hazard identification and improvement

The business must run a process to identify hazards and risks at the worksite at least once every six months and take corrective measures (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 시행령 제4조 제3호). Whether this process actually flagged the specific hazard that later caused the accident — and whether anything was done about it — is often the single most contested fact in these cases.

Emergency response and reporting procedures

A manual for responding to injuries, deaths, and other emergencies must exist and be trained on, along with a system for reporting safety concerns without retaliation against the reporting worker. Gaps here are frequently cited even where other obligations were substantially met.

Managing subcontractors and third-party contractors

Where work is outsourced, the client company must evaluate the safety capability of the contractor before entering the contract and provide equivalent safety budget and management standards for the contracted work (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제5조). This obligation is central in cases where the injured worker was employed by a subcontractor rather than directly by the prosecuted company.

Serious Industrial Accidents | Identifying the 'Management Responsible Person'

The Act's criminal liability attaches to a specific role, not simply to whoever holds the CEO title. In practice, determining exactly who that person is — and whether liability can be attributed to more than one person — is often litigated in itself.

Default rule: the representative director

The Act defines the responsible person as whoever has final decision-making authority over business operations, which is presumed to be the representative director (CEO) unless the company can show someone else genuinely holds that authority (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제2조 제9호).

Can a Chief Safety Officer (CSO) take on the liability instead?

Some companies designate a separate safety and health officer with real authority and budget control over safety matters, intending for that person — rather than the CEO — to bear primary responsibility. Whether this designation is respected by prosecutors depends heavily on whether the CSO actually had independent decision-making power, not just a title.

Parent companies and group-level liability

Where a subsidiary's safety decisions are effectively controlled by a parent company or headquarters, investigators may examine whether the parent company's executives should also be treated as having management responsibility for that worksite. This is a developing and fact-intensive area of enforcement.

Serious Industrial Accidents | Criminal Penalties, Fines, and Civil Exposure

A conviction carries both a custodial sentence for the individual and a separate corporate fine, and it also affects related civil liability and government contracting eligibility.

Individual penalty for a fatal accident

Where a death results, the responsible person faces imprisonment of one year or more, or a fine of up to 1 billion won, and these two can be imposed together (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제6조 제1항). This is a materially harsher minimum sentence than the equivalent provision under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Individual penalty for serious injury or illness

Where the accident causes qualifying injuries or illness short of death, the responsible person faces imprisonment of up to seven years or a fine of up to 100 million won (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제6조 제2항).

Corporate fine, independent of the individual sentence

The company itself can be fined up to 5 billion won for a fatal accident and up to 1 billion won for a serious injury/illness accident, in addition to any sentence against the individual (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제7조).

Punitive damages in a related civil suit

A bereaved family or injured worker can separately pursue civil damages, and the Act allows a court to award damages of up to five times the actual loss where the company or responsible person acted intentionally or with gross negligence (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제15조).

⚠ Aggravated penalty for repeat violations

If a company or its responsible person is convicted again within five years of a prior conviction under the Act, the applicable penalty and fine can be increased by up to one-half (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제6조 제3항).

Serious Industrial Accidents | From Accident Report to Trial

On-site accident report and immediate response
The Ministry of Employment and Labor and, for fatalities, the police are typically notified immediately. Preserving the accident scene, securing CCTV and safety logs, and briefing employees on how to respond to questioning should happen within the first 24–48 hours.

Special labor inspection and evidence collection
Labor inspectors and often the prosecution jointly investigate, requesting safety budget records, risk assessment logs, training records, and organizational charts covering the period before the accident, not just the day it occurred.

Executive and witness interviews
The CEO, safety officer, and relevant managers are interviewed as suspects or witnesses. What is said in these early interviews about who held safety authority often shapes who is ultimately charged.

Prosecution's charging decision
The prosecution decides whether to indict the company, the individual responsible person, or both, and under which statute (the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, or both in combination).

Trial and sentencing
If indicted, the case proceeds through trial where the existence and substance of the safety management system — not merely the accident itself — becomes the central factual dispute.

Serious Industrial Accidents | How Fees Are Set for These Cases

Initial consultation and case assessment
Fees for the first review of accident facts, safety documentation, and inspection notices are generally set based on the complexity of the worksite and the number of executives potentially exposed.

Retainer for the investigation stage
A retainer covers representation during the labor inspection and prosecutorial investigation stage, including preparing executives for interviews and responding to document requests. This is usually set as a fixed fee agreed in advance based on case scope.

Trial-stage fee
If the matter proceeds to indictment and trial, a separate fee applies for courtroom representation, reflecting the number of hearing sessions and the complexity of expert or documentary evidence involved.

Preventive compliance review (non-litigation)
Separately from defense work, a standalone fee structure applies for companies seeking a proactive audit of their safety and health management system before any accident occurs, priced according to company size and site count.

Disbursements
Costs such as expert opinions on safety engineering, transcript fees, and travel to regional worksites are billed separately as incurred, itemized and agreed with the client in advance where possible.

※ Costs vary depending on case complexity and specific circumstances; exact fees will be provided during consultation. No specific outcome is guaranteed.

Serious Industrial Accidents | Self-Check: Is Your Company Exposed?

1️⃣ For CEOs and Business Owners

Do you have a written annual safety and health plan with a specific allocated budget, not just a general safety policy statement?
Can you name the specific person with authority over safety budget decisions, and confirm they are not merely a nominal appointee?
Has a hazard identification review been conducted and documented within the last six months?
If work is outsourced to contractors, did you evaluate their safety capability before signing the contract?

2️⃣ For Safety and Health Officers (CSOs)

Do you have independent authority to halt work or reallocate budget when a hazard is identified, or does every decision require CEO sign-off?
Are your risk assessments and corrective actions documented with dates, not just summarized after the fact?
Have workers been trained on the emergency reporting procedure within the past year?

3️⃣ If an Accident Has Already Occurred

Has the accident scene and relevant equipment been preserved for inspection rather than immediately repaired or cleared?
Have you identified which employees are likely to be interviewed as witnesses, and briefed them on factual accuracy without coaching them on answers?
Have you gathered all safety budget and training records predating the accident before regulators request them?
Is there a risk that a subcontractor's worker was involved, raising separate obligations under Article 5 of the Act?

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Does the Serious Accidents Punishment Act apply to my small business?

A. The Act generally covers businesses with 5 or more regular employees, though businesses with fewer than 50 regular employees (or construction projects under 5 billion won) were given a delayed application date under the Act's transitional provisions. Businesses with fewer than 5 employees are excluded from criminal liability under this Act, though the Occupational Safety and Health Act may still apply.

Q. If I already have a safety manager, am I as CEO automatically off the hook?

A. Not automatically. Prosecutors and courts examine whether the safety manager genuinely held independent budget and decision-making authority, or whether the CEO retained real control while using the appointment as a formality. A Seoul serious industrial accident lawyer can review your governance structure to assess how this designation is likely to be evaluated in your specific case.

Q. What is the practical difference between this Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act?

A. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (산업안전보건법) generally targets the on-site manager or supervisor for specific safety rule violations at the moment of the accident. The Serious Accidents Punishment Act reaches the CEO or equivalent for systemic failures — the absence of a functioning safety management system — and carries a higher minimum sentence for fatal accidents.

Q. Can I be prosecuted even if the accident involved a subcontractor's employee, not my own?

A. Yes. Article 5 of the Act extends the safety management obligation to include workers of contractors and subcontractors performing work for the business, provided the business exercises effective control over the facility or worksite where the work occurs (중대재해 처벌 등에 관한 법률 제5조).

Q. What happens during the period between the accident and any indictment decision?

A. This period typically involves a labor inspection and, for fatal cases, a parallel police or prosecutorial investigation. It is common for this stage to last several months to over a year, during which document requests and executive interviews continue.

Q. Will having insurance or a settlement with the victim's family reduce criminal liability?

A. A settlement with the victim's family or dependents can be considered as a mitigating factor in sentencing, but it does not eliminate the underlying criminal charge under the Act, since the charge is based on a failure of statutory obligations rather than solely on the harm caused.

Q. Can the company be punished even if no individual is convicted?

A. The Act allows for a corporate fine under Article 7 in connection with a violation by the responsible person, so the corporate and individual liabilities are linked but assessed through separate proceedings; the specific relationship between the two can become a contested legal issue depending on case facts.

Q. What should I do first if a serious accident just happened at my worksite?

A. Prioritize worker safety and required medical response, then promptly notify the relevant authorities as required, preserve the accident scene and any related equipment, and consult a Seoul serious industrial accident lawyer early to understand what documentation will likely be requested and how to prepare executives for interviews.

Q. Does a near-miss or minor injury count as a serious industrial accident?

A. No. The Act only applies where the statutory thresholds are met — generally a death, or multiple qualifying injuries/illnesses as defined under Article 2 — so a near-miss or a single minor injury falls outside this Act, though it may still raise obligations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Q. How is 'failure to establish a safety management system' actually proven in court?

A. Courts typically look at documentary evidence such as budget approval records, risk assessment logs, training attendance sheets, and internal reporting channels, comparing what existed on paper against what was actually implemented in practice at the time of the accident.

Official References

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