ILO 산업안전보건관련 협약과 우리나라의 산업안전보건법

In 2008, Korea ratified ILO Conventions 155 and 187, which were adopted as fundamental ILO Conventions in June 2002. By comparing the Occupational Safety and Health Act (the OSH Act) with these ILO Conventions, this article attempts to improve Korea's legal system for workers' occupational safety and health. Basically, it could be said that the overall content of Conventions 155 and 187 is generally implemented in the OSH Act. However, this article argues that the following issues need to be reviewed: the effective guarantee of workers' right to “suspension of work”; the implementation of the obligation to consult and periodically review occupational safety and health policies with representative workers' organisations; the implementation of labour inspection activities related to occupational safety and health; and the scope of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Firstly, in order to ensure the effectiveness of workers' right to “suspension of work”, it is necessary to review the scope of workers who can exercise the right to “suspension of work”. In particular, there is a categorical gap between the applicable scope of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (the IACI Act) and the OSH Act. The applicable scope of the OSH Act, which is primarily aimed at preventing industrial accidents, is narrower than that of the IACI Act, which is primarily aimed at compensating industrial accidents. In addition, the meaning of “imminent danger of an industrial accident” is ambiguous, so that the requirements for triggering the right to “suspension of work” under Convention No. 155 need to be revised. It is also necessary to clarify that the risk of occupational accidents includes “mental accidents”. Secondly, it is important to note that the obligation to consult employers' and workers' organisations on occupational safety and health policy “implies an obligation to engage, where necessary, in a continuous dialogue rather than a one-off consultation”. Consultation with works councils must be in relation to OSH policies and systems, and “States and social partners should give more thought to the continuing appropriateness of excluding any workers from protection against occupational injury and disease”. Also, the representation of defendant contractors who are not employees (i.e. “workers” under §91-15, the IACI Act) should be considered as a matter of national policy. With regard to labour inspection activities related to occupational safety and health, as an enforcement activity of the law, labour inspection should be able to achieve the effect of preventing occupational accidents through the imposition of fines or penalties in accordance with the sanction provisions of the OSHA. Finally, it is necessary to assess the status of the effective use of workers' right to “suspension of work”, as well as the implementation of the provisions under the duty of cooperation between labour and management.