January 27, 2024 marks an important milestone for the Korean safety and health regulatory regime. Specifically, from this date, the scope of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (the “SAPA”) was expanded to cover businesses with an employee headcount of five to 49 employees, among other things.
 

The following describes the key components and related attributes of the SAPA regime.
 

• The SAPA is a criminal statute which imposes criminal sanctions on the top decision-maker of a company in Korea (referred to as the “Responsible Management Personnel” under the SAPA and generally a company’s representative director in the Korean corporate governance regime) for failing to fulfill various duties as prescribed in the SAPA and the subordinate regulations to secure safety and health in the workplace, which failure results in a serious accident (e.g., death). In short, the SAPA requires the Responsible Management Personnel to (i) put into place appropriate resources in terms of personnel, budget, and organization, and (ii) receive reports and issue instructions to ensure appropriate monitoring of the effectiveness of the safety and health management system and implement remediation where deficiency is found.
   

• The SAPA, which is intended to prevent serious workplace accidents (the so-called “Serious Industrial Accidents”) as well as other types of harm that can affect the members of the general public (the so-called “Serious Public Accidents”), was passed on January 8, 2021 and came into force on January 27, 2022.
   

SAPA Compliance Thresholds and Safe Harbors
 

• For businesses not engaged in the construction industry

• For businesses engaged in the construction industry

SAPA Compliance Timeline
 

• In addition to the on-going need to assess the status of SAPA compliance, from January 27, 2024, businesses subject to the SAPA will need to be aware of the following compliance timelines:

Please note that under the Enforcement Decree of the SAPA, there are a total of seven items that need to be verified by the Responsible Management Personnel, including risk assessment, obtaining the views of workers concerning safety and health, preparing an accident manual, checking the status of compliance with safety and health-related laws, among other things. It is important to note that these semi-annual checks must be repeated every year.
 

Given the aforementioned expansion in the scope of the SAPA, it would be prudent for multinational companies with subsidiaries or branches in Korea having at least five employees to check the status of SAPA compliance.

[Korean Version]