I need to respond to charges of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act. How should I respond?

Hello. This is an attorney specializing in occupational safety at Daeryun Law LLC.

Where a worker's fatal accident occurs in connection with a charge of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the matter is treated as a serious one for which criminal punishment is anticipated.

In particular, since a charge of occupational negligence causing death under the Criminal Act may be applied jointly with the question of whether the Occupational Safety and Health Act was violated, a careful response that keeps in mind even the possibility of an actual custodial sentence is necessary from the early stage of the investigation.

However, the occurrence of a worker's death does not mean that all responsibility is immediately attributed to the business owner.

In a case of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the key issues are whether the business owner actually breached the safety measure obligations imposed on it and whether a legally recognizable causal relationship exists between that breach and the worker's death.

In particular, if the worker suffered the accident while performing arbitrary and exceptional work beyond the scope of the business owner's instructions, there is ample room to contest the causal relationship between the breach of the business owner's duty of care and the resulting death.

For example, even if the failure to prepare a work plan is raised as a problem, if the accident occurred due to the worker's voluntary choice of work, it can be argued that it is unjust to hold the owner criminally liable for the death based solely on a mere formal breach of duty.

In addition, with regard to the marking of the maximum permissible load or the failure to conduct a safety test on the self-manufactured equipment, the scope of responsibility may vary depending on whether the worker was already able to recognize the danger and whether the measure could have substantially prevented the accident.

What is important in a case of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act is a strategy of not merely acknowledging the breach of duty and seeking leniency, but of contesting, on legal grounds and as a separate matter, whether that breach of duty actually brought about the grave result of death.

To this end, you must comprehensively analyze the site conditions, the work methods, the circumstances before and after the accident, and the nature of the worker's conduct, and specifically argue the absence or limitation of the causal relationship.

Furthermore, in a criminal trial, the business owner's attitude in responding after the accident is also considered an important sentencing factor.

Whether rescue measures were taken immediately after the accident, a responsible response toward the bereaved family, faithful compliance with the labor office's corrective orders, and substantial safety measures to prevent recurrence are also assessed together, and these circumstances can have a decisive influence on whether an actual custodial sentence is imposed.

In a charge of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the early response during the investigation determines the outcome of the subsequent trial.

If the investigation has already begun, it is more important than anything else to identify precisely the issues that can be legally contested, ahead of 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 with the assistance of an attorney specializing in occupational safety who has an understanding of the occupational safety field and practical experience in criminal matters.