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President Lee Jae-myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, on July 29, discussing measures to eradicate serious industrial accidents. / Source: Yonhap News

President Lee Jae-myung is escalating his hardline stance on workplace fatalities, ordering measures tantamount to a “war on industrial accidents” — including direct presidential reporting of fatal incidents, license cancellations, and punitive damages. The push comes amid concerns that the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, intended to encourage voluntary prevention, has proven largely ineffective since its enactment in 2022.

On August 9, Lee directed that “all industrial accident fatalities must be reported to me as quickly as possible,” adding that “it should never be the case that I first learn about them from the media.” The order came just a day after a construction worker was killed when a steel structure collapsed at a site in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province.

Even while on his first vacation since taking office earlier this month, Lee reacted to a fatal accident at a POSCO E&C site by stating, “Companies that repeatedly cause industrial accidents should be publicly named so their stock prices collapse. Use every possible means to impose strong sanctions.” POSCO E&C has recorded four worker deaths so far this year, rising to five when including a separate incident at Gwangyang Steelworks.

At a July 29 Cabinet meeting, Lee condemned preventable accidents as akin to “murder with willful negligence” and ordered a review of all possible legal sanctions, including license revocations, restrictions on public bids, limits on financial loans, and punitive damages.

Government data shows little improvement in fatal workplace accidents since the Serious Accidents Punishment Act took effect. Over the past three years, only one case has resulted in a prison sentence, with most outcomes being fines or suspended sentences. The number of fatal accidents — 611 in 2022, 584 in 2023, and 553 in 2024 — has not declined significantly, and the first quarter of 2025 saw 129 incidents, nearly unchanged from the same period last year. Experts note that a drop in construction activity due to an industry slump may mask the true scale of the problem.

The government is now considering expanding sanctions, such as tightening conditions for business suspensions from “two or more deaths” to “one or more,” and increasing penalties for offending companies. The Democratic Party has also formed an industrial accident prevention task force to prepare amendments that would clearly define CEOs’ safety obligations and make violations subject to criminal punishment.

However, some industry voices warn that stricter penalties alone are insufficient. “The ‘ppalli-ppalli’ [rush] culture and illegal subcontracting are the real causes,” one construction executive said, urging that sanctions be paired with cultural and structural reforms.