A law punishing employers for workplace accidents will apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees from Saturday after the rival political parties failed to agree on a two-year extension to the grace period.

While the parties have until the end of the Thursday plenary session to pass the extension bill, an agreement is unlikely given that they are both wary of the response from the business and labor communities ahead of the April general elections.

Since the revision bill was submitted last September, the government and the PPP have called for the grace period extension, citing a lack of preparation by businesses with fewer than 50 workers and a personnel shortage.

At a party meeting on Thursday, ruling People Power Party(PPP) floor leader Yun Jae-ok accused the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) of putting forth the excessive precondition of establishing a state agency to handle industrial safety.

Another thorn in negotiation had been the DP's call to increase the state budget for industrial disaster prevention to two trillion won, or around one-point-five billion U.S. dollars.

DP floor leader Hong Ihk-pyo, for his part, blamed the government for neglecting to respond to any of the preconditions put forth by the opposition.

Under the act, enforced since 2022, business owners face a minimum one-year prison term or a fine of up to one billion won upon the death or serious injury of an employee in the workplace.