Deadly Delays: The Heartbreaking 640-Day Wait for Justice After Industrial Accidents
Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service and Korea Industrial Safety & Health Agency
Last year’s epidemiological survey averaged 634.6 days
In the first half of this year, it exceeded 640 days.
144 deaths over 6 years under investigation
“Dereliction of duty… Government must establish countermeasures”
It was confirmed that the average time it took for the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service to receive a response from the investigation agency regarding the results of the industrial accident epidemiological investigation concluded last year was 634.6 days per disease. This is the longest period of time ever. Due to the prolonged epidemiological investigation, the number of workers who died during the investigation exceeded 140 from 2018 to the first half of this year.
According to the data submitted to Democratic Party lawmaker Park Hae-cheol by the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service on the 22nd, the epidemiological investigation processing period of the two major epidemiological investigation agencies, the Occupational Environment Research Institute of the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service and the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, is gradually increasing.
The average period of time taken by the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute to conclude and report to the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service last year was 952.4 days, which is about 2.5 times longer than 2018 (385.9 days). In the case of the Occupational Environment Research Institute, it was 588.1 days last year, which is about 2.8 times longer than 2018 (211.8 days).
When a worker applies for industrial accident compensation for an occupational disease, the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service conducts an accident investigation to determine the causal relationship between the work and the disease, and requests an epidemiological investigation if necessary.
The Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute is in charge of new and rare occupational diseases and large-scale epidemiological investigations, and the Occupational and Environmental Research Institute is in charge of the remaining general epidemiological investigations.
Looking at the combined figures for the epidemiological investigation periods of the two organizations by year, it was 178.4 days in 2017, 232.8 days in 2018, 236.1 days in 2019, 295.5 days in 2020, 405.4 days in 2021, 465.7 days in 2022, and 634.6 days last year.
The upward trend continued in the first half of this year, reaching 640.1 days.
Due to the prolonged epidemiological investigation, there have been steady cases of workers dying while waiting for industrial accident approval. According to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, the number of deaths during epidemiological investigations from 2018 to the end of June this year was 144.
The prolonged epidemiological investigation was a major issue at the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s state audit last year. At that time, Samsung Display research worker Choi Jin-kyung (49 years old at the time of death), who was introduced as a “victim of prolonged epidemiological investigation,” died of breast cancer in November of last year without receiving industrial accident compensation. In a letter sent to the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee before her death, Choi said, “What is it that requires four years to investigate? It’s not just a lack of manpower, but it’s like dereliction of duty.”
The Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service explains that the reason for the prolonged epidemiological investigation is the lack of manpower while the number of new harmful factors and rare diseases requiring epidemiological investigation is increasing. In February, the Ministry of Labor announced the results of a special audit of the industrial accident insurance system and suggested measures such as resolving long-term unprocessed cases through intensive processing period operation and improving manpower management. However, there has been no decrease in the epidemiological investigation period as of yet.
Rep. Park said, “The Ministry of Employment and Labor must come up with a proactive plan to prevent the recurrence of industrial accident victims dying while waiting for the results of the epidemiological investigation,” adding, “We also need measures to prevent low-income industrial accident victims from suffering further deterioration in their health because they cannot afford medical expenses until their industrial accident claims are approved.”