Abstract
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Labor for the past 6 years, work-related accidents in the construction industry have been on the continued increase, resulting in social and economic losses that are difficult to determine at an exact amount. However, the number will likely get much bigger if unreported cases are included, considering the fact that the aforementioned statistics are based soley on the applications filed with Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service. The practice of businesses choosing not to report and dealing with industrial accidents in an unauthorized manner is defined as "concealment of industrial accident". The reason the employers tend to engage in the concealment practice even at their huge cost is a "pre-qualification" scheme for the applicants in the government procurement process. Under the pre-qualification scheme, the applicants with a high rate of industrial accidents receive a low grade and become less attractive candidates in the procurement process, thus losing an opportunity to win a contract. Such failure relates directly to the fate of business organizations, to survive or not. That is why they are making all-out efforts to obtain a high grade in the pre-qualification evaluation. With regard to the accident-concealment problem, the following can be mentioned as preventive measures: (1) To exclude a rate of industrial accidents from the pre-qualification scheme; (2) To strengthen the institution of imposing penalties on the occurrence of industrial accidents; (3) To introduce private insurance system to the current industrial accident compensation insurance; and (4) To give non-recognition treatment to industrial accidents that were not reported upon occurrence. In conclusion, the concealment problem can be resolved if the aforementioned measures are to be taken continuously along with corrective measures against institutional deficiencies.
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