Advising on employee discipline and damages claims after a safety accident at a nuclear power plant

During improvement work on nuclear fuel handling equipment at a nuclear power plant, a safety accident occurred and a representative of the project owner was injured. After the allocation of the damages costs arising from the accident was settled, the question arose whether the contractor that performed the work could discipline the employee involved or hold the employee liable for damages.

Attorney Jaehoon Lee reviewed, on behalf of the company, the grounds for discipline, the limitation period for discipline, and whether liability for damages and reimbursement could be established.

The main issues were whether the negligence of the employee who caused the safety accident constituted grounds for discipline under the rules of employment, when the limitation period for discipline began to run, and whether the company's internal audit suspended that limitation period.

Further questions were whether the company could seek reimbursement from the employee after bearing the compensation costs of the accident, and whether a damages claim remained available even after the limitation period for discipline had expired.

Attorney Lee analyzed how the accident occurred and the relevant rules of employment to determine whether the employee's negligence amounted to gross negligence, which is required for both discipline and liability for damages.

He also analyzed the starting point of the limitation period for each ground for discipline and the suspensive effect of the internal audit, and reviewed separately the legal nature and requirements of exercising disciplinary authority and of asserting a claim for damages.

We advised that it would be difficult to establish gross negligence on the employee's part in the accident, so discipline under the rules of employment and a damages claim would be difficult to pursue. We also reviewed how the limitation period for discipline applied and the legal effect of the internal audit procedure, and proposed how the relevant rules should be revised.