esg-policy-strategy

Safety is Now Public: August 2026 Marks the Dawn of the Corporate 'Safety Report Card' Era

The Occupational Safety and Health Disclosure System takes effect on August 1, 2026, requiring companies with 500 or more regular employees and construction contractors with a project value of 120 billion won or more to publicly disclose their safety and health status annually. Although fatal accidents in the first half of 2026 hit a record low of 253, a clear polarization by accident type emerged, with falls decreasing while fires and explosions actually increased. Over four and a half years of Severe Accidents Punishment Act enforcement, court rulings have repeatedly pointed to a lack of risk identification and improvement procedures, as well as inadequate criteria for evaluating responsible personnel, while the suspended sentence rate reached 85.7%. Safety leadership manifests not through declarations, but through resource and time allocation and the fostering of psychological safety, while safety culture matures in stages, akin to the Hudson model or Bradley curve. With international standards such as the ISO 45001 revision and the ISSB human capital project also expanding safety into the realms of culture and well-being, businesses must transition from lagging to leading indicator management.