The meaning of “business owner” under the Industrial Safety and Health Act in multi-employer relationships : Focusing on the need for change in the concept of “business owner”

This paper examines the challenges to the traditional concept of ‘employer’ posed by the diversification of employment forms and the rise of platform work under Korea’s Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). It highlights the phenomenon of fragmented employment and dispersed employer responsibilities in multi-employer relationships and notes that, currently, Korean law primarily addresses these issues through regulations focused on contractors and limited provisions for special-type and delivery workers. However, the law does not adequately address the issue of dispersed employer responsibility. To address this issue, the paper analyses overseas case studies, including Australia’s Model Work Health and Safety Act (Model WHS Act), the EU Platform Work Directive and the US Multi-Employer Citation Policy. The Australian legislation introduces the concept of a PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking), enabling multiple business operators to share occupational health and safety duties and enhancing the effectiveness of these responsibilities in new employment relationships such as platform work. The EU directive emphasises the need for risk assessment, preventive measures, transparency in algorithm management and protection against violence and harassment in platform work. The US policy functionally classifies employer responsibilities at multiemployer work sites, thereby clarifying accountability in fragmented employment structures. The paper concludes that Korea’s OSHA should be reformed to enable multiple and joint employer responsibilities for occupational safety and health, drawing on these international legislative models.