반올림 뉴스레터 2023-10-16  

111 unjust deaths - that's the despairing number of people who died in the last five years while waiting for epidemiological investigations after applying for compensation for industrial accidents.  Workers and their families have repeatedly raised the issue of prolonged epidemiological investigations, but nothing has changed.

In response, SHARPS and Representative Woo Won-sik call for a showcase system in which the state takes responsibility for and prioritizes delays in disaster investigations, including epidemiological investigations. They also want to change the reality of unjustified rejections based on narrow criteria. We urge the Supreme Court to clearly state the criteria for determining occupational diseases in the Workers' Compensation Act (Article 37). The concealment rate of industrial accidents is as high as 66%. This is a reality that makes it very difficult for injured workers or their survivors to apply for workers' compensation on their own, and the state remains inactive. Therefore, we call for the introduction of an ex officio method of initiating workers' compensation proceedings with the assistance of a doctor. 
 
A bill to amend the law to this effect was introduced on September 27. (See National Assembly Bill Information System - Bill No. 2124915)

In March 2019, I applied for workers' compensation to the Labor Welfare Corporation, but the epidemiological investigation was delayed as expected. I thought I would only have to wait a year, but two years have passed without any promise. I thought I could wait a little longer, but in the meantime, the cancer spread throughout my body and became terminal.

I don't understand why it took four years to investigate a development line that had already been abandoned before I left the company. It seems like abandonment of duties, not to mention lack of manpower. After waiting for so long, I was told that a review committee would be held, and I attended with difficulty. However, as if the answer was decided from the beginning, I was denied by the review committee members who relied on a flawed epidemiological survey and did not understand my work properly. The numerous chemicals I used and all the radiation equipment were denied after four years without being able to provide any evidence to convince me. 

Being recognized as a worker's compensation recipient would have helped me pay for my medical treatment and living expenses, but now I'm not sure what the future holds, especially with my physical condition. I hope that the worker's compensation law will be revised so that there are no more wronged people.

It is urgent to introduce a national work injury liability system to prevent wrongful deaths.I hope that the Workers' Compensation Act will be revised so that there will be no more wrongful deaths.

Ms. Ha-hee joined Samsung Electronics as soon as she graduated from high school in 2011. She only stopped working in July 2019 when she felt increasingly unwell. In October of that year, she was diagnosed with medulloblastoma (a malignant brain tumor) after collapsing from dizziness. She underwent surgery and chemotherapy and radiation, but the tumor returned last November. She now suffers from excruciating back pain when she sits down and has difficulty balancing and walking. However, whenever he applied for a leave of absence, the answer from the Labor Welfare Corporation was, "You can be treated while working." Instead, she was told that she could only receive leave for the period of inpatient treatment. Ha-hee had to apply for a reconsideration or file an appeal before she could receive the full amount of leave.

There are many voices calling for the ministry to improve its criteria for determining whether a person can be treated at work.

Young Eun: In 2013, we had women's health rights meetings within SHAPRS, and victims and allies met and told their stories as women, but even then, I don't think we could say that we actively incorporated gender consciousness into SHAPRS' work. It's not like we suddenly had gender issues in the back of our minds, because there was definitely (gender) discrimination in the victims' stories. The case of the environmental notebooks (where semiconductor companies did not provide materials with information on the substances used and safety guidelines to female production workers) was also an issue that revealed the hierarchy of gender. We were raising these issues one by one, but I don't think they were lumped together under the umbrella of gender.

 

When SHAPRS published "People Who Make Problems into Problems," it was primarily to raise awareness of the risks and damages of occupational diseases passed on to children, but it was also to connect the scattered stories of victims and bring them together under the umbrella of gender.

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