Korea's KOSHA holds third ombudsman meeting on safety disclosure system

The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency said Tuesday it convened the third meeting of its KOSHA ombudsman panel in Seoul to review progress on a corporate safety and health disclosure system scheduled to begin full service next year.

The meeting, held at the agency's southern Seoul branch, brought together standing auditor Chung Hye-sun and members of the ombudsman panel to check the execution of institutional improvement tasks under way and to discuss future direction.

The KOSHA ombudsman is an external oversight body of outside experts that monitors the agency's main projects and its handling of civil complaints and contracts, and proposes improvements to unreasonable practices or corruption risks. At this third session, the panel focused on the construction status of the disclosure system.

Panel members offered supplementary measures and expert opinions so that the system does not remain a showpiece but settles in as an effective tool that encourages companies to prevent industrial accidents on their own, KOSHA said.

The agency said it plans to work closely with the relevant departments to reflect the panel's findings and recommendations immediately in the system's construction and in how the program is run. The disclosure system is designed to require companies above a certain size to publish their safety and health status annually, a requirement introduced through an amendment to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, with an enforcement decree stipulating the delegated details taking effect on Aug. 1, 2026.

"Rules revisions to strengthen the fairness of the research committee and the private institution evaluation system are proceeding without a hitch based on the ombudsmen's sharp recommendations," Chung said. "The newly introduced corporate safety and health disclosure system will also actively reflect the members' valuable opinions to eliminate blind spots in the program and to cultivate the agency's project execution process into something more transparent and healthy."