헌법원리적 관점에서 바라본 중대재해처벌법의 문제점과 개선방안 – 중대산업재해를 중심으로 –

Korea's Serious Accident Punishment Act has a fundamental problem that it violates several constitutional principles (principle of clarity, principle of responsibility, principle of prohibition of excess, principle of equality, and principle of prohibition of comprehensive delegation), such as conflict and contradiction with Korea's Occupational Safety and Health Act. Violation of constitutional principles is likely to lead to unhelpful in securing effectiveness of accident prevention.
In fact, many point out that various side effects such as a decrease in the effectiveness of accident prevention are occurring in various places due to Serious Accident Punishment Act. It can be said that Serious Accident Punishment Act enacted under the banner of drastically reducing serious accidents is not really helpful in accident prevention and is causing a huge cost burden.
The most serious problem is the lack of predictability and feasibility, which are the most basic principles that the special criminal law should have, and the violation of the obligation of Serious Accident Punishment Act is not more likely to be blamed than the Occupational Safety and Health Act (consequentially aggravated offender) However, it stipulates a much higher level of punishment.
In the former case, even large corporations are encouraging them to respond formally rather than practically safe, promoting ‘high-cost, low-effectiveness’ occupational safety and health. In the latter case, if the basis for strong punishment under the Serious Accident Punishment Act is that illegal, the Industrial Safety and Health Relations Act should provide a legal basis for why the same type of violation is punished with lower or non-penalty than Serious Accident Punishment Act, but neither Serious Accident Punishment Act nor the law enforcement or interpretation agency is able to explain it.
The above problem corresponds to a fundamental defect in which the legitimacy of Serious Accident Punishment Act itself can be denied. Without resolving this, no matter how much rhetoric Serious Accident Punishment Act is decorated, it is nothing more than a pretense, and as a result, a cynical atmosphere about safety issues in society as a whole can intensify.
In order for Serious Accident Punishment Act to practically promote the prevention of serious accidents, it is necessary to focus on improving the accident prevention system and establishing a accident prevention infrastructure so that the overall safety and health capabilities of Korean companies can be improved and companies can manage safety and health in the right direction.
To this end, it needs to be done first and foremost before it is too late to abolish or overhaul Serious Accident Punishment Act, which has many problems, into the Occupational Safety and Health Act, on the premise of a major revision of Occupational Safety and Health Act.