Supervisor's death highlights gaps in South Korea's worker protection law

A South Korean construction supervisor, Lee Kwang-cheol, died in October 2022 after falling into a pit at a sewage pipe repair site in Yangju. His widow is fighting for him to be recognized as a worker protected by the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, arguing that his role was to oversee the construction's quality.

Lee, who had worked in construction for 34 years, was inspecting the site when the ground collapsed. Official investigations pointed to the main contractor's failure to implement adequate safety measures, including insufficient water and soil containment and a lack of access control to hazardous areas. Despite these findings, the prosecution concluded that Lee was not a "worker" directly employed by the main contractor, Suji Engineering & Construction, as he was employed by a separate supervision company, KG Engineering.

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Supervisors are there to go to the site and check if the construction is being done properly. But my husband died doing that job, yet he is excluded from the protection of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. If that's the case, are supervisors supposed to avoid going to the site for their own protection and only supervise construction with a pen in the office?

The Ministry of Labor's interpretation requires a direct contractual relationship, which the family disputes, stating that Lee was performing duties entrusted by the client and overseeing the project. This exclusion from protection, they argue, contradicts the law's intent to cover individuals working for compensation, regardless of contract form.

While the site manager and construction companies face charges related to the accident, the main contractor's executives and local officials were cleared of charges under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. The family's appeal against the non-prosecution ruling was rejected, and they plan to seek a judicial review. The issue resurfaced recently with another supervisor's death at a demolition site, reigniting the debate over who is protected under the law when accidents occur.

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The law stipulates that anyone who works for compensation for the business, regardless of the contract form, is a worker. There is no legal basis to consider the supervisor as not falling under this category. The problem is that they were excluded from the protection from the beginning without even reaching the stage of examining the main contractor's violations of obligations.