Issue Focus

​● The construction industry is the only industry that stipulates that the person placing an order legally accounts for safety-related expenses.
​- This is because the construction industry is more dangerous than other industries and is an order-taking industry. As of 2024, 328 deaths occurred in the construction industry, accounting for 39.7% of the total, and the accident death toll rate was about four times higher than the industry average.
​● Safety management costs for domestic construction projects are divided into occupational safety and health management expenses for securing workers' safety and health under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and safety management expenses for securing facilities and civil safety under the Construction Technology Promotion Act.
​- However, most safety management costs at construction sites are recognized as occupational safety and health management costs under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and safety management costs under the Construction Technology Promotion Act are relatively low except for safety inspection costs.
​● The biggest difference between safety management costs and occupational safety and health management costs lies in the method of accounting. Occupational safety and health management costs are easy to calculate by applying rates according to the type and size of construction.
​- On the other hand, the safety management cost is a structure in which the cost calculated in the same project may vary depending on the capabilities of the person placing an order, since the remaining items excluding safety inspection costs must be calculated by the person placing an order directly based on design books.
​- Major public institutions, such as LH, have established their own calculation standards to account for sufficient safety management costs at the design stage, but public ordering institutions, such as local governments, do not reflect appropriate safety management costs at the design stage due to the lack of specific standards.
​● As a result of a survey of 84 public construction projects, local governments have found that there is a problem in using the following safety management cost system.
​- (Person in charge) Public affairs personnel accounted for 55.8% of the state corporation and safety managers accounted for 55.9% of the local government corporation.
​- 51.2% of local government corporations responded that safety management costs were insufficient than legal standards, showing a big difference from 23.3% of state corporations.
​- The response that regular safety inspection costs with clear accounting standards were insufficient was not significant (6.8%p) between the state and local governments, but there was a difference of more than 25%p in other items that must be calculated directly by the owner based on volume.
​- Regardless of the type of person who originally placed an order, the most common reason for the increase in safety management costs was that the client did not recognize the increase in safety management costs as the reason for the design change (36.9% of the state corporation and 37.8% of the local government corporation).
​● The step-by-step improvement measures for revitalizing the safety management cost system under the Construction Technology Promotion Act in public construction work are as follows.
​- In order to support the insufficient capabilities of the person placing an order, a plan is prepared to secure the minimum safety management costs at the ordering stage by assigning the obligation to calculate safety management costs to the "Design Safety Review" mandated by the "Construction Technology Promotion Act"
​- (Review and approval) Prepare a device to realize safety management expenses by adding the obligation to review the appropriateness of the safety management expenses recorded by the person placing an order and the safety management expenses calculated by the constructor for the implementation of the safety management plan in the cost statement before the commencement of the project
​- (Design Change and Settlement) Prepare a plan to induce a smooth design change by including a safety management plan in the design plan according to the general conditions of the construction contract, clearly stating the difference between the cost statement and the safety management plan in the standard for increasing safety management costs under the Enforcement Rules of the Construction Technology Promotion Act​