[Unofficial Korean-English translation provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

"Prosecutors indict an apartment management company for the first time of violating Serious Accident Punishment Act," 14 June 2023

A CEO of an apartment management contractor were sent to trial on Thursday for violating the Serious Accident Punishment Act, regarding a worker who died after falling from a ladder while not wearing a hard hat. This is the first time prosecutors have indicted an apartment management company under the Act.

[...] According to the prosecution, on April 15 last year, Mr. A, who was in his 60s and worked as an equipment manager in the mechanical and electrical department of an apartment management company in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, fell to his death from a height of 1.5 meters while on a ladder to repair a ceiling leak. Although Mr. A may have lost his footing due to a pre-existing medical condition, the special judicial police of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which conducted the investigation, sent the case to the Northern District Prosecutors' Office under the provisions of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which states that a safety system must be in place to prevent accidents even for workers with medical conditions.

The prosecutors determined that the main cause of the accident was that the CEO, who was in charge of management, did not fulfill his duty to ensure safety and health necessary to prevent accidents as required by the Serious Accident Punishment Act. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards, ladders should only be used as a means of transportation. If it is unavoidable [to use it for height support], it is necessary to follow the guidelines of working in groups of two and wearing a hard hat, but Mr. A was not wearing a hard hat at the time of the accident.

[...]