On February 11, 2025, the Ministry of Employment and Labor launched a special labor supervision in response to allegations that a freelance weather presenter died as a result of workplace harassment by her colleagues.

The public has continued to call for the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (“SAPA”) to be applied to cases involving the deaths of courier workers due to overwork, nurses’ deaths linked to workplace bullying, and suicides caused by sexual harassment in workplace.

An occupational accident (fatal accident) under the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (“IACIA”) means “any death of an employee which is caused by an occupational reason” (subparagraph 1 of Article 5 of the IACIA). A serious accident (fatal accident) under the SAPA means “an industrial accident in which a person providing labor dies due to construction work, equipment, raw materials, gas, or dust in relation with the work, or where at least one worker dies in the course of operations or related work” (subparagraph 2(a) of Article 2 of the SAPA).

In addition, the performance of obligations to secure safety and health under the SAPA often requires performing the obligations to take safety and health measures under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSHA”), and more specifically the obligations to take measures under the Rules on Occupational Safety and Health Standards (“Rules”).

Therefore, there remains a possibility that the SAPA may apply to certain fatal accidents involving office workers, including: ① suicide due to workplace harassment; ② death caused by work-related stress, including customer-facing duties; and ③ death caused by overwork.

If the scope of the SAPA is expanded, it is likely to impose liability not only on CEOs, but also on corporations, which indicates that this constitutes a material risk affecting both the entities and their overall management. As the aforementioned problems represent significant risk factors for corporate management, it is essential to establish proactive measures to prevent and manage such risks.

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