The National Assembly Library announced Wednesday that it has published the latest issue of its "Data & Law" series (Issue 2026-7, No. 45), focusing on serious industrial accidents as seen through data.
According to the library, the annual number of fatal workplace accidents in South Korea has hovered around 600, falling from 644 in 2022 to 605 in 2025. Falls remained the leading cause of death for the fourth consecutive year, accounting for 41.2 percent of all fatalities in 2025, or 249 deaths. South Korea's fatal accident rate — deaths per 10,000 workers — stood at 0.39 as of 2023, the second highest among 10 major countries surveyed, trailing only Canada at 0.52 and roughly 1.9 times the peer-country average of 0.21.
The library also tracked enforcement trends under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. The number of people indicted at the first-instance level for violations rose from 12 in 2022 to 185 in 2025, while those sentenced increased from 28 in 2023 to 100 in 2025. The number sentenced to property penalties of 50 million won ($33,500) or more also grew from four to 24 over the same period. The law's coverage expanded on Jan. 27, 2024 — after a three-year grace period following its promulgation — to include businesses or workplaces with five or more but fewer than 50 full-time workers, and construction projects valued at less than 5 billion won.
Meanwhile, the data show differences by workplace size depending on when the law took effect. Among businesses now fully covered — those with five or more but fewer than 50 full-time workers, and construction projects under 5 billion won — the average annual number of fatal accidents fell from 371 in the two years before the law applied (2022–2023) to 345 in the two years after (2024–2025). In the first quarter of 2026, fatalities in that category dropped to 59, down 29.8 percent from 84 in the same period a year earlier.
By contrast, workplaces with fewer than five full-time workers — excluded from the Serious Accidents Punishment Act under Article 3 of the law — saw fatalities rise. In the construction sector, deaths climbed from 49 in 2024 to 70 in 2025, while other industries saw an increase from 39 to 46 over the same period.
Heo Byeong-jo, director of the library's Legal Information Division, said the declining fatal accident rate and the drop in deaths at smaller workplaces now fully covered by the law are meaningful signs of progress, but added that disparities by workplace size remain, with fatalities actually rising at businesses with fewer than five workers. "We hope this issue of 'Data & Law' will serve as a reference for evidence-based legislative discussions and the design of industrial accident prevention policy," he said.
tiger@heraldcorp.com
