[Exclusive] Site supervisor dies on the job, and the construction supervisor in charge...excluded from the Serious Accident Punishment Act, citing 'no contract with the contractor'

The widow of a missing construction site overseer, Kim Gu-won, claims that she is being denied protection under the Disaster Relief Act because the contractor she worked for, Kegi Engineering, did not have a formal contract with the construction company. The tragedy occurred when she was inspecting a water supply and drainage project in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, in October 2022.

The site was incomplete, with inadequate measures to control water and soil, and the area between the river and the underground work area had only a 5-meter difference in water level. The National Safety and Disaster Management Agency criticized the contractor for not fully inspecting the area and not controlling access to the site.

The family believes that the overseer's employer should have been held responsible for safety management, but the contractor was not considered a "worker" by the prosecution. The family filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor, arguing that the overseer was performing the construction work under a contract, but the Ministry rejected their claim, stating that a formal contract was necessary.

The Ministry's decision has been challenged in court, but the case is now being reviewed by Seoul High Court.