영국 산업안전보건 체계의 시사점

According to the statistics, accident death rate is decreasing since 2001 - 1,551 people died at work in 2001 and 1,396 people died at work in 2009. But this rate is still very high, considering those of America, Japan, and the United Kingdom. To solve this problem, a lot of solutions have been suggested, which contain various approaches. This paper is one of the approaches to the matter that tries to get useful suggestions from the precedents of the United Kingdom. The reason to pick up the United Kingdom's example is that she has much experience to deal with this kind of matter as a more industrialized country and she affected EU occupational health and safety frame work. Even though occupational health and safety is relevant to all branches of industry, which means there are may obstacles to the achievement of good standards generally accepted, this paper tries to make 4 suggestions from the United Kingdom's experience. First, occupational health and safety law and policy should be controlled by the central governmental organization and careful consideration should be taken when transferring its functions to the local authorities. Second, the meak discretion of inspectors should be reconsidered to cope with the rapidly changing work places situation. Third, the generous attitude of prosecutors and judicial courts against the occupational health and safety crime should be reviewed thoroughly. Last, administrative orders should be renewed periodically at an appropriate time.