Serious Disaster Punishment Act to be expanded application

Starting Saturday, the Serious Disaster Punishment Act application will be expanded to over 837,000 business sites of self-employed and small and medium-sized enterprises with five to 49 employees as the revision bill to delay the application timing by two years is practically unlikely to be processed by the National Assembly. Now, small businesses will face the risk of criminal punishment of imprisonment of one year or longer in case of serious disasters without proper preparation. If the ruling and opposition parties can reach a dramatic agreement, the bill could be processed during a regular session of the National Assembly on Thursday, but it is unlikely.

The government, the ruling People Power Party, and the business circles have been trying to convince the opposition party to postpone the bill's application, citing the lack of preparation by small businesses and the self-employed, which account for over 90 percent of all businesses. Most conditions requested by the Democratic Party of Korea as prerequisites for the delay – an official apology from the government, detailed plans to prevent disasters, and implementation after two years – have been met. However, the agreement fell through as the opposition party made an additional demand to install the Occupational Safety and Health Agency. It is believed that the Democratic Party requested a new condition at the end to come up with a justification for deliberately failing the agreement as the party could not ignore the labor sector's request for enforcement of the law before the upcoming general elections.

Small businesses are now facing an urgent risk. The owners of local restaurants, bakeries, and cafes are confused as many of them didn’t even know that their businesses are subject to the Serious Disaster Punishment Act. Construction sites with a construction cost of less than five billion won, which are newly added to the act's scope, practically gave up as they can’t afford safety managers. While the Ministry of Employment and Labor offers consultation services to the self-employed, the services are provided to a small portion of the businesses subject to the act, and private consultation services cost over 10 million won.

What’s more problematic is that these companies are more likely to let go of their existing employees or reduce hiring. A large number of small business owners with five or more employees intend to reduce their number of employees to four or fewer to avoid judicial risk. Some say that older workers with worse health and capabilities to avoid disasters are the first to be let go. Workers will also lose jobs when business owners receive criminal punishment and close their businesses due to fatal accidents. The number of workers under the impact of the act is eight million.

The Serious Disaster Punishment Act has been controversial since its establishment in 2021 regarding rules on excessive punishment and ambiguous legal clauses. The government hasn’t been diligent in reforming the act and coming up with response measures during the last three years since the act was put in place. However, the political circles that neglect the implementation of the act, which will threaten the livelihood of the self-employed and reduce jobs, cannot avoid responsibility under any excuse.