Labor Minister Lee Jung-sik speaks during a news conference at the government complex in Seoul, Nov. 30. Yonhap

The government plans to revise the controversial act on serious industrial accidents as it seeks to shift the focus of workplace safety policy from punishment to self-regulation and prevention, officials said Wednesday.

The labor and other related ministries announced a comprehensive plan to reduce serious occupational accidents, including a new framework of workplace risk management and increased support for smaller enterprises.

"Since the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1981, the nation has focused on regulation and punishment," a labor ministry official said.

"Thus, many companies pay more attention to paperwork to avoid immediate punishment than to systematically improving safety capabilities."

The government will give more weight to businesses' self-regulated prevention systems, under which labor and management cooperate in discovering and improving risk factors based on the guidelines imposed by the state.

When serious accidents occur, the government will consider businesses' own prevention efforts in assessing their accountability, the ministry said.

When workers are killed or seriously injured, such efforts will be taken into account in the process of investigation and trial, it added.

To that end, the government plans to amend related laws including the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which took effect in January.

Businesses have called for easing the law, under which business owners and management could face more than one year in prison or less than 1 billion won ($754,700) in fines in the event of accidents that cause death or serious injury.

The government seeks to revise the law by more clearly defining the criteria of punishment and adjusting it in line with the new self-regulatory prevention system, the ministry said.

For companies with 50 or fewer employees, which account for about 80 percent of the total serious accidents, the government will provide support in facility and manpower to help improve their safety management capabilities.

Safety equipment based on high technologies, including artificial intelligence cameras and fall protection clothing, will be provided to construction and manufacturing sectors.

The government will also expand the mandatory establishment of an occupational safety committee with workers' participation, from companies with 100 or more employees to companies with 30 or more employees.

Large companies will be encouraged to support subcontractors to improve their safety capabilities.

The nation's workplace fatality was 0.43 per 10,000 workers last year, the 34th among the 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The government aims to lower the rate to the OECD average of 0.29 by 2026. (Yonhap)