The Serious Accidents Punishment Act — 7 Things Every Business Owner Must Know (2026 Edition)

What Is the Serious Accidents Punishment Act?

Enacted in January 2022, this law imposes criminal liability directly on business owners and executive managers (e.g., CEOs) whenever a fatal accident occurs at a worksite. Unlike the previous framework — which placed responsibility on safety managers — the new law targets the very top of the corporate hierarchy.

The law initially applied to workplaces with 50 or more employees (or construction projects valued at KRW 5 billion or more). As of January 2024, it was extended to all worksites with 5–49 employees and construction projects valued at KRW 500 million to KRW 5 billion. In practice, virtually every company is now covered.

7 Things Every Business Owner Must Know

1. Definition of a "Serious Accident"

• 1 or more fatalities
• 2 or more workers requiring at least 6 months of medical treatment from the same incident
• 3 or more workers diagnosed with occupational disease from the same hazardous factor within one year

2. Penalties (in the event of a fatality)

• Business owner / executive manager: imprisonment of 1 year or more, or a fine of up to KRW 1 billion (both may apply simultaneously)
• Corporate entity: fine of up to KRW 5 billion

3. Nine Core Obligations The law imposes nine "safety and health assurance obligations." The most critical are:

• Establish and publicly announce a safety and health management policy
• Create a dedicated safety and health organization (separate from the general safety manager)
• Conduct periodic risk assessments and incorporate findings into operations
• Allocate and execute a dedicated safety and health budget
• Manage safety for subcontracted and outsourced work
• Develop and maintain an emergency response manual
• Conduct regular safety training
• Establish channels to hear and act on worker feedback
• Document and retain records of all compliance activities

4. Documentation Is Everything When a violation is disputed, evidence is what matters most. Prosecutors and courts determine whether a business owner fulfilled obligations based on records. Paper records are prone to authenticity challenges; even digital records must carry clear, verifiable timestamps to be accepted.

5. Delegation Does Not Transfer Liability "I left it all to the safety manager" is not a defense. Executive managers bear the duty to build the system itself; delegating tasks does not extinguish their personal liability.

6. Sentencing Trends from First-Instance Rulings (2024–2025)

• Fatal accident + failure to implement required safety measures: mostly active imprisonment of 1.5–3 years
• Simple negligence + partial compliance with safety measures: suspended sentence + fine of KRW 100–300 million
• Risk assessment and training records maintained digitally and accurately work in the defendant's favor at sentencing
• Records consisting only of paper or spreadsheets, or whose timestamps are questioned, work against the defendant

7. Response Checklist — Five Things the Business Owner Must Handle Personally ① Issue a written, publicly announced safety and health management policy ② Allocate a separately identifiable budget for safety management, training, and equipment (auditable) ③ Conduct risk assessments at least annually and whenever work processes change; document that results were immediately incorporated into operational changes ④ Operate channels for worker input (quarterly meetings, in-app reports, anonymous reporting) ⑤ Prepare an immediate-response manual for accidents and conduct regular drills

SenseZero's Role

The essence of Serious Accidents Punishment Act compliance is maintaining verifiable documentation of every obligation fulfilled.

• Risk assessment findings → automatically accumulated via BLE beacon and wearable data
• Safety training completion → automatically logged through wearable devices and the mobile app; viewable by role and team on the management dashboard
• Subcontractor safety management → integrated alerts and training records for each subcontractor, visible from the prime contractor's dashboard
• In the event of an accident → 5-second-interval data for the relevant moment is automatically preserved with immutable timestamps

The "evidence of compliance" courts recognize is not human recollection or paper signatures — it is automatically captured data. SenseZero provides that data infrastructure.

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