When a workplace with vehicle operations or hazardous work sets out to define alcohol management standards, it is easy to assume that a rule for not assigning work based on test results is enough. But if that rule goes into the safety and health management regulations, you must follow the procedure for drafting and amending those regulations, separately from the on-site operating plan. Safety and health management regulations are the written rules that set out how a workplace manages safety and health and what its members must observe.
Even if you plan to introduce a breathalyzer or an interlock, a device that controls vehicle starting based on a breath test result, approving the equipment purchase and amending the regulations are not the same procedure. Article 26 of Korea's Occupational Safety and Health Act requires that drafting or amending safety and health management regulations go through deliberation and resolution by the occupational safety and health committee, and that workplaces without such a committee obtain the consent of the employee representative. It is therefore clearer to handle the addition of an alcohol management clause in distinct stages: drafting, the statutory procedure, and putting the final version into effect.
First define the document and the scope of clauses you are changing
The first step is to check the original safety and health management regulations currently in use, and to mark whether the alcohol management content is a new clause or an amendment to an existing one. Even if similar sentences already appear in site notices, vehicle operation guidelines, or equipment instructions, you need to confirm separately whether they are part of the safety and health management regulations. You cannot assume that every document covers the same subjects or carries the same force.
The draft works best when it spells out the operational changes that will actually happen, such as who is tested in which situations, which duties are put on hold when a result does not meet the standard, and who can view the results. However, technical or operational conditions that have not been confirmed, such as reading values, how the equipment works, or when someone may drive, must not be written into the regulations as settled facts. Leave undecided points as items to be decided, and resolve them during the review.
Prepare for committee deliberation and resolution, or employee representative consent
Under Article 26 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, an employer must go through deliberation and resolution by the occupational safety and health committee when drafting or amending safety and health management regulations. If the workplace has no such committee, the employer must obtain the consent of the employee representative. Internal sign-off by a site manager, safety manager, or purchasing officer may be a necessary operational review, but it is hard to see it as a substitute for the deliberation and resolution or consent that this article prescribes.
Rather than simply writing "introduce alcohol management" on the agenda, it is better to present the amended wording together with the workflow you intend to implement. When the people to be tested, the point at which they are checked before work is assigned, how work is withheld when a result does not meet the standard, and the department that handles inquiries are all visible, it becomes clear what is being deliberated or consented to. Reviewers can then judge not the equipment purchase itself, but how workers' duties and safety management will change.
| What to look at in the procedure | Materials to prepare | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Existing safety and health management regulations | Comparison of the current regulations and the proposed amendment | Separate new clauses from amended clauses |
| Whether the workplace has a committee | Status of the occupational safety and health committee | Decide on the deliberation and resolution procedure or the employee representative consent procedure |
| Actual changes in site operations | Who is tested, how duties are withheld, how people are informed | Reflect the operational details in the wording put up for deliberation or consent |
| Records showing the version was finalized | Meeting outcome or proof of consent, final version | Link the version of the effective text to its effective date |
Do not mix draft review with formal implementation
If wording still under review is distributed to the site first, work assignments may change based on standards that have not been finalized. Marking the draft as a "review copy" and keeping it in a storage location separate from the official regulations reduces confusion in practice. In particular, if equipment settings or test record forms are built around the draft wording, they will have to be realigned if the wording changes after deliberation and resolution or consent.
In a hypothetical case, suppose a transport-related workplace wants to add a clause for pre-shift breath alcohol tests and for withholding vehicle duties based on the result. The fact to observe is that the existing regulations contain no such clause and that there is only a notice written by a manager. This means the notice alone can hardly be seen as completing the procedure for amending the safety and health management regulations, so a possible action is to prepare an amendment, proceed with deliberation and resolution or employee representative consent depending on whether a committee exists, and align the notice with the final wording. The completion criterion is not whether the equipment has been installed, but a state where the final version of the regulations, having gone through the required procedure, matches the guidance to be distributed on site.
Align site guidance and record-keeping with the final version
Once the procedure is complete, align site guidance, manager training materials, and the workflow for handling test results with the wording of the finalized regulations. For example, if the regulations define situations in which work is not assigned, the site can prepare who will inform the worker of the change in duties, how, and how replacement staff will be assigned. This is an operational suggestion to reduce cases where the site applies the regulations' wording with a different meaning of its own.
When you also set up a way to record or retain results, it is worth reviewing separately the types of information collected, who can view it, and the purpose of use. Having gone through the procedure for drafting and amending the safety and health management regulations does not, by itself, resolve everything from personal information processing and the relationship with the rules of employment to measures that disadvantage individual workers. It is better not to drop these issues from the amendment agenda, and to separate them out for review by the relevant departments.
Clearly record when the change was completed on paper
In the amendment history, link the clause changed, the reason for the change, the fact that deliberation and resolution or consent took place, and the effective date of the final version. That way, even if site notices or test forms change later, you can trace which version of the regulations they were based on. Because an equipment purchase approval and a regulation amendment serve different purposes, it is safer not to treat a single approval document as having completed both procedures.
In the end, the key is to manage both the content of the alcohol management clause and the procedure that makes it part of the regulations. If the change goes into the safety and health management regulations, the standard order is to first check for deliberation and resolution by the occupational safety and health committee, or, if there is no committee, to obtain the employee representative's consent, and then to align site operations with the finalized wording.
※ This article is general information and not legal advice on any individual matter. For specific cases, consult a lawyer or other professional. Laws may be amended, so check the latest version at the Korea Law Information Center.
