South Korea Consults on Revised OSHA Enforcement Rules

Four OSHA’s enforcement rules were revised and the drafts are open for public comments until 3 June. Amendments focus on increased liability for company representatives and contractors, prohibition on sub-contracting high risk work, SDS submission, etc.

On 22 Apr 2019, South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labour (MOEL) issued revision proposals of four enforcement rules for the fully amended Occupational Safety and Health Act[1] (OSHA). The public consultation period will end until 3 June. The four enforcement rules are:

The revised K-OSHA was promulgated on 15 Jan 2019 and will come into force one year later. The most controversial changes to SDSs and CBI will apply from 16th January 2021 (ChemLinked news[6]).

According to Mr. Jae-kap LEE (Minister of MOEL) and Mr. Seo-jeong IM (Vice Minister of MOEL) in the official statement[7], the authority will promote the legislative process involving development and implementation of supporting documents to assure implementation of the revised OSHA proceeds without any delay. In addition to the above mentioned enforcement rules, there will be another 72 supporting guidelines and standards revised or fleshed out in line with OSHA amendments.

The revised OSHA implementation rules concern increased liability for representative directors of companies and contractors to prevent industrial accidents. Manufacturers with over 500 full-time workers will be required to prepare and implement a health and safety program. Liability for a contractor is not only limited to specific dangerous sites within a company's own place of business, but also expands to cover the entirety of its places of business.

The enforcement rules will expand protection scope in line with the revised OSHA to include 9 categories of "workers in special types of employment" which are not subject to South Korea’s Labor Standards Act, but which are covered by the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act.

Sub-contracting certain types of high-risk work was prohibited by the revised OSHA to prevent long-term exposure to chemical substances which may cause occupational diseases, e.g. plating work. As proposed in the Enforcement Decree, some sub-contracting work including upgrading, dissembling or dismantling facilities which involved use of sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid or hydrochloric acid ( above a concentration of 1%) will require approval from the MoEL in advance.

The revised OSHA grants workers the right to suspend work where there is a major accident. The enforcement rules, as proposed, specify that the local employment and Labour department need to review the application to terminate the labor contract in 4 days.

As for the most burdensome requirements regarding SDS submission and CBI application, the enforcement rules offers more details to guide practice. The draft Enforcement Decree (Article 87) offers explicit exemption conditions for MSDS submissions, including pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, pesticides, food, food additives, household chemical products, materials that contains a natural radionuclide, etc. It should be noted that for a substance manufactured or imported in a volume of less than 100kg/year for R&D purpose will be exempt as well.