The Korean government is poised to revise a law on industrial safety by toughing regulations on the production and distribution of hazardous chemicals with a mandatory prior review on submitted workplace reports known as material safety data sheets (MSDSs), putting many firms at risk for disclosing possibly sensitive trade secrets to the third party.

In a worst case scenario, Korean semiconductor companies that rely on a heavy use of chemicals may have to halt their lines if their overseas suppliers reject the disclosure for fear of data leak.

According to sources on Tuesday, the Ministry of Employment and Labor is working on a bill to require liable companies to get prior permission on the exemption from public disclosure for reasons of trade secrets.

Under the current law, distributors or users of chemicals are required to create MSDSs for the safety of their workers and such data are disclosed at the request of industrial disaster victims.

The problem is that local semiconductor and display companies heavily rely on imported chemicals. Under the new law, a European photoresist supplier, for example, should inform Korean semiconductor firms of its chemical components and content to allow Korean customers to report them to the government. In this case, the supplier is very likely to reject the request because its data may be related to manufacturing secrets.

The chances for the bill going through are low for now.

The trade ministry recently ruled that the work environment assessment reports submitted from Samsung Electronics contain trade secrets that need protection from public disclosure, dismissing the labor ministry’s plan for disclosure at the request of families of workers who died after working at a semiconductor plant.

By Sohn Il-seon and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]