Problems and Improvement Measures for the Accidents and Deaths Rate Calculation System of Construction Companies
Publication Date 2025-04-30
Researchers Hee-Dae Park, Tae-Hong Sohn
The system for calculating the industrial accident rate of construction companies has been changed from the existing converted accident rate to the accident death rate, and it was originally targeted at general construction companies, but it will also include professional construction companies from 2021.
- The converted accident rate refers to the accident rate calculated by assigning weights to death accidents among occupational accidents, and has been changed to the ratio representing the number of deaths from occupational accidents per 10,000 full-time workers since December 2018.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor calculates the accident death toll rate for each company every year and reflects it in public works bids to promote autonomous disaster prevention activities of construction companies.
- The accident death toll rate is used as a basis for intense administrative sanctions that hold construction companies responsible for industrial accidents because it is used to reduce the construction performance of construction capability assessment, creditworthiness for preliminary bidding qualifications, and comprehensive screening and qualification screening criteria.
If there is work relevance even if there is no negligence of death accidents in compliance with industrial accident prevention obligations, the accident death rate can be calculated regardless of whether the Occupational Safety and Health Act is violated, so the industry's demand for improvement is high.
- The Ministry of Employment and Labor operates an objection system to the accident death toll rate of construction companies, but if the objection is rejected, it will be included in the calculation of the accident death toll rate of the construction company regardless of the court's final negligence, and even if it is acquitted or acquitted later, it will have to bear the damage of sanctions due to the calculation of the accident death toll rate.
Most small and medium-sized construction companies with relatively weak administrative capacity compared to large companies are having difficulty responding appropriately, such as preparing and reviewing documents for objections.
- The objection period is limited to 10 days from the date of notification of the accident death toll, and there are cases in which the objection cannot be filed even though it is excluded from the number of accident deaths due to the demand for many documents depending on the type of objection.
- Small and medium-sized construction companies that have to carry out various tasks such as safety, quality, accounting, and administration with limited manpower are likely to have difficulty responding to the exclusion and correction application even if they receive an objection
It proposes two ways to improve system accessibility and support system so that most small and medium-sized construction companies with insufficient administrative capabilities can receive fair evaluation by improving the usability of the accident death rate objection system.
- It is necessary to extend the period of objection allowed within 10 days according to the enforcement regulations to 14 days or two weeks to ensure a sufficient period for construction companies who wish to raise objections to the accident death toll rate.
- Cooperation and organizations in the construction sector need to establish a system to support the insufficient administrative and rental capabilities of small and medium-sized construction companies through distribution of manuals related to the accident death rate objection system.
In addition, if a trial on the negligence of a death accident is pending, it is necessary to consider suspending the calculation of the number of accident deaths in the ongoing trial to calculate the accident death toll rate after the industrial accident negligence is confirmed.
- This is a proposal for rational calculation, not an exemption from the inclusion of the number of accident deaths, and the possibility of abuse of lawsuits by construction companies due to the revision will be limited as lawsuits for inappropriate purposes can lead to accumulation of the number of accident deaths and consequent disadvantages in the process of operating the human rate-based system.