Presentation of government proposal for the Severe Disaster Law … Restricted punishment for public officials and suspended for 2 years to apply the law with less than 100 employees

Entry 2020.12.28 21:58 | Revision 2020.12.28 22:02

As minister and head of local government management,
The causation estimation clause has been removed from the ‘toxin clause’.
The amount of damages is limited to 5 times the amount of damages or less.
Legislative Review Subcommittee on 29 … Likely to oppose the Justice Party

In addition, on the 28th a revised government project was presented to the National Assembly with the opinions of the government ministries on the Law of Corporate Punishment for Severe Accidents (Law of Severe Disasters) promoted by the Democratic Party. Excluding the minister and heads of local governments who are in charge of calling for responsibility in the event of a major disaster, the application of the law to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees was 4 years and the application of the law was delayed 2 years to workplaces with 50 or more and fewer than 100 employees. The presumed causal clause, known as the “toxin clause”, has been removed. The Legislative Judicial Committee of the National Assembly is scheduled to hold a legislation subcommittee on the 29th to examine the government bill.

The name of the government draft of the Severe Accident Law, which was released to the National Assembly on this day, is “Law of Punishment for Companies and Severe Accident Managers.” This means that “Government Official” was omitted from the name of the legislation initiated by the passport (the Law on Punishment for Corporate and Government Officials in Major Disasters). According to the government draft, ‘heads of central administrative agencies’ and ‘heads of local governments’ have been removed from the purview of the responsible administrator. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said: “Because the main punishment of the law is the manager, it is clearly defined in the name of the law.”

In addition, the main problems of the Severe Accident Law include △ estimation of causal relationships, △ penalization of public officials in charge of safety management and licensing, △ four-year suspension of law enforcement for workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, and △ punitive damage compensation regulations.

The presumption of causal relationship has been removed from the government. Even if it is difficult to immediately prove that the owner is responsible for the accident, it is a provision that the owner can be assumed to be responsible if there has been any violation of the obligations of the safety measures in the past or obstruction of the investigation. The corporate world rebelled against this as the “toxin clause.” The Ministry of Justice commented that “the presumption of a causal relationship may be contrary to the ‘principle of presumption of innocence’ of criminal law.”

The provisions relating to the special sanction of public officials in charge have been modified so that they are punished only in cases of abandonment of duty under the criminal law (article 122 of the Penal Code). The Justice Ministry commented: “It is difficult to see that (public officials) have the real authority to direct and supervise violations of safety and health obligations simply by being the person with the right to approve.”

The trial period and targets for the implementation of the bill have been increased. While taking advantage of the supplemental provision in Park Joo-min’s proposal that “ law enforcement will be suspended for four years in workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, ” the government has granted a two-year grace period. years for workplaces with 50 or more and fewer than 100 employees. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said that “it is necessary to comprehensively consider the size of the workplace and the number of deaths, and it is necessary to classify it by amount of construction in the case of the construction industry.” The Justice Party has opposed delaying the application of the law to companies with fewer than 50 employees.

Regulations for punitive damages have been relaxed. In the case of a fatal accident, the managers in charge of the administration put an upper limit on the fines to be punished with imprisonment of two years or more or fines of 50 million won or more and less than 1 billion won. The amount of the damages should not exceed 5 times the amount of the damages. Justice Party legislator Eun-mi Kang (more than 3 times more than 10 times less damage) and Democratic Party legislator Park Ju-min (more than 5 times).