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Serious Accidents Punishment Act

Serious Accidents Punishment Act

📂HR & Labor⏱2-min read📊Practical🔗10 related

What is the Serious Accidents Punishment Act?

In one line
A law that imposes criminal penalties on employers and top executives who fail to meet their duty to ensure safety and health when a serious accident, such as a death, occurs at a workplace. Its key point is that responsibility for safety management falls directly on management, not on the front line.
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⚡ Summary in 3 lines
  • Executives face personal criminal liability after a serious accident
  • Applies to all workplaces with 5+ employees since 2024
  • A safety and health management system, and the records that prove it, are your line of defense

What this law really changed is not the severity of penalties but the kind of evidence investigators examine after an accident. In the past, on-site supervisors and safety managers were the first to be investigated; now the inquiry starts with what was approved at the CEO's desk. Safety budget approvals, management meeting minutes, and risk assessment reporting lines are submitted as evidence, and the defense that 'we delegated it to the executive in charge' backfires if that executive had no real budget or personnel authority. Since the law expanded on 27 Jan 2024 to all workplaces with 5 or more regular employees, the burden falls more directly on small and midsize companies, where the CEO is also the accountable executive. The records you keep before an accident become your defense after it.

The criteria are set by the numbers. A serious industrial accident occurs when any one of these applies: at least 1 death; at least 2 people injured in the same accident who need 6 or more months of treatment; or at least 3 people with an occupational disease from the same hazard within one year. For a fatal accident, the executive faces at least 1 year in prison or a fine of up to KRW 1 (≈ US$1) billion, the company faces a fine of up to KRW 5 (≈ US$1) billion, and punitive damages of up to 5 times the actual loss can be added separately. The law also covers serious civil accidents involving raw materials, manufactured products, and public-use facilities, so retail and service companies are exposed too. Where the Occupational Safety and Health Act punishes violations of specific safety measures, the Serious Accidents Punishment Act punishes the absence of the system that produces those measures.

The most common failure in practice is treating “having the documents” and “having a system that works” as the same thing. If a consultant produces a 300-page manual that sits in a cabinet and the signature fields of the risk assessment are all filled in by one person in the same handwriting, it can become evidence that the system was never implemented during an investigation. Another common misconception is that appointing an executive in charge of safety and health (CSO) exempts the CEO. If that role has no budget approval authority or personnel authority over the organization, the CEO is still deemed the responsible executive. It is also risky for office-based companies to dismiss the Act with “it doesn’t apply to us,” because the scope of inspection extends to cleaning and security contractors, building facility works, group events and business trips.

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💡 In plain English
It works like the captain’s-responsibility principle at sea: even for an accident on board, if no safety system was in place, it is the captain, not the deckhand, who stands in court.
Why it matters in practice
Safety has moved from a line-management issue to a criminal risk for top executives, so a safety and health management system, and the records showing it was carried out, now rank first in corporate risk management.
⚠️ Common misconceptions
It is easy to dismiss this as 'a problem only for big manufacturers and builders,' but since 2024 it applies to every workplace with 5 or more employees, and accidents tied to facilities or outsourced work at office-based companies can also lead to punishment of the responsible executive.
Origin and sources

Passed by the National Assembly in January 2021 and in force since 27 Jan 2022, the Act emerged amid repeated industrial accidents, such as the Taean thermal power plant incident and warehouse fires, and the debate over the “outsourcing of risk.” The UK’s Corporate Manslaughter Act was discussed as a major reference model during the legislative process.

Source · Act on the Punishment of Serious Accidents, etc. (Act No. 17907) · View original text
An example

Consider a hypothetical case. Company A, a food manufacturer with KRW 180 billion (≈ US$134,670,100) in revenue and 420 employees, operates three plants alongside 80+ regular subcontractor workers. Even after the 2024 expansion, it had only two people on safety and health, and the previous year a conveyor entrapment left one worker with an injury requiring three months of treatment. The CEO believed 'the consulting firm prepared the paperwork, so we're covered.'

  1. At the February management meeting, CEO Kim said, 'If an accident happens, I'm the one standing in court,' raised the safety and health budget from KRW 48 million (≈ US$35,900) the previous year to KRW 320 (≈ US$1) million, and personally signed the spending approval.
  2. It expanded the safety and health team from 2 to 5 people reporting directly to the CEO, and changed the risk assessment form so that 12 line workers fill it out themselves instead of the foreman.
  3. When the purchasing manager objected that adding safety items would raise unit prices by 8%, the CEO replied that “that 8% is cheaper than a KRW 1 billion (≈ US$748,200) fine,” and had both the remark and the reasoning behind the decision recorded verbatim in the meeting minutes.
  4. The company added a 30-point safety weighting to the evaluation sheet for its 8 partner suppliers, told the bottom 2 that “there will be no contract renewal without improvement within 3 months,” and set a monthly joint inspection led by the plant manager.
  5. One year later, near-miss reports rose from 3 to 41 per month, while caught-in and slip-and-fall accidents fell from 7 to 1. The labor office inspection closed with just 2 findings, and regular management inspections became a documented record of compliance.
Related terms
Occupational Safety and Health TrainingSafety and health training that employers must provide to workers under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. It includes regular training, training at hiring, training when job duties change, and special training. Employers who skip it are fined.ComplianceThe activities and systems that ensure a company follows laws, regulations, and internal rules. It is a core pillar of corporate governance and internal control.Crisis ManagementThe ability to respond quickly and honestly to unexpected crises (accidents, reputational damage, disasters) to limit harm and protect trust.Stakeholder ManagementIdentifying and aligning the expectations of the people who affect or are affected by a project or organization. It often decides success or failure.Industrial Accident Insurance & Claims ProcessA social insurance program that pays medical care, sick leave, and disability benefits to workers injured on the job. The employer pays the full premium.Occupational Safety and Health CommitteeA statutory body in which labor and management, with equal numbers of members, deliberate and decide on workplace safety and health matters.Risk AssessmentA procedure for identifying workplace hazards, judging the size of each risk, and planning and carrying out measures to reduce it.Safety and Health Officer & Line SupervisorA legal requirement to appoint a person with overall responsibility for workplace safety and health, plus supervisors who directly manage the safety and health of their workers on site.Yellow Envelope Act & Amended Trade Union Act Articles 2 and 3The name given to the amendments that broaden the definitions of employer and worker in Article 2 of the Trade Union Act and limit damage claims for industrial action under Article 3. The core changes open a path for subcontractor workers to bargain with the principal contractor and restrict large damage claims over strikes.Accidents at Company Dinners & Year-End Parties: Work-Related Injury CriteriaThe criteria for deciding whether an injury during a company-hosted dinner or year-end party, or on the way home from one, counts as a work-related injury. The key factors are whether the employer organized and managed the event and whether attendance was effectively mandatory.
Learning paths that include this term
🧭 12 Labor Terms Every HR Manager Should KnowFor HR managers who also handle general affairs, and HR staff taking on labor administration for the first time
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Last updated 13 Sep 2026 · Reviewed by John Kim

FAQ

It applies to any workplace with 5 or more employees, regardless of industry. Even office-centered companies need a safety and health management system, because building and facility management, outsourced services such as cleaning and security, and accidents at events or on business trips can all lead to a serious accident.
It applies when there is at least 1 death, at least 2 injuries from the same accident requiring treatment for 6 months or more, or at least 3 cases of occupational illness, such as acute poisoning, from the same hazardous factor within a year. Serious civic accidents, which occur in facilities or products used by the public, are also separately defined.
While the Occupational Safety and Health Act governs concrete safety measures at the workplace level, the Serious Accidents Punishment Act imposes a duty to ensure safety and health on the responsible executive personally and imposes criminal penalties for non-compliance. The two laws do not replace each other; they apply at the same time.
It is a system you run every day, not a response after an accident. You need records showing that your safety policy, organization and budget, risk assessment and improvement, worker feedback, and subcontractor management actually worked. A 'paper system' with only formal documents can count against you in an investigation.