I need to respond to an industrial safety and health act violation. How should I respond?

Hello. I am an industrial safety specialist attorney at Daeryun Law Firm.

If a worker fatality has occurred due to a violation of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, it is treated as a serious matter for which criminal punishment is anticipated.

In particular, since charges of occupational manslaughter under the Criminal Act may be applied jointly with violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, careful response is required from the early stages of the investigation, considering the possibility of imprisonment.

However, just because a worker fatality has occurred does not mean that all responsibility immediately falls on the employer.

In Industrial Safety and Health Act violation cases, the key issues are whether the employer actually violated the safety obligations they bear, and whether there is a legally recognizable causal relationship between that violation and the worker's death.

In particular, if the worker had an accident while performing arbitrary and exceptional work outside the scope of the employer's instructions, there is sufficient room to dispute the causal relationship between the employer's violation of the duty of care and the death result.

For example, even if not preparing a work plan is at issue, if the accident was caused by the worker's arbitrary work choice, it can be argued that holding criminal responsibility for the death result based solely on a formal violation of duty is unfair.

In addition, failure to indicate maximum allowable load or failure to perform safety tests on self-made tools may also vary in the scope of responsibility depending on whether the worker could already recognize the risk and whether such measures could have substantially prevented the accident.

The important point in Industrial Safety and Health Act violation cases is not just acknowledging the violation of duty and seeking leniency, but rather a strategy that legally separates and disputes whether the violation of duty actually caused the serious result of death.

To do this, you must comprehensively analyze the site situation, work method, circumstances before and after the accident, and the worker's behavior pattern, and specifically argue the absence or limitation of causal relationship.

In addition, in criminal trials, the employer's response attitude after the accident is also considered an important sentencing factor.

Whether rescue measures were taken immediately after the accident, responsible response to the bereaved family, faithful implementation of labor office corrective instructions, and substantive safety measures to prevent recurrence are also judged together, and these circumstances can have a decisive impact on whether imprisonment is imposed.

Industrial Safety and Health Act violation charges are cases where the early response in the investigation determines the future trial result.

If an investigation has already begun, it is most important to accurately identify the legally arguable issues prior to emotional appeals, and to objectively reconstruct the cause of the accident and the scope of responsibility.

In this process, it is necessary to prepare a systematic defense strategy through the assistance of an industrial safety specialist attorney with understanding of industrial safety and criminal practical experience.