Industrial Suffering
On Nov. 7, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in an industrial accident lawsuit filed against the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service by the bereaved family of the late Ms. Lee Yoon-jung, a former Samsung Electronics employee who had died from a malignant brain tumor two years ago. The court added that the case of Yoo Myung-hwa, another former Samsung Electronics employee suffering from aplastic anemia, constituted an industrial accident as well.
“The plaintiffs’ diseases can be attributed to continuous exposure at work to harmful chemicals such as benzene, lead, formaldehyde, and extremely low-frequency magnetic fields,” the court explained, continuing, “It is fair to say that both of them suffered from fatigue accumulation and significant stress during their work so that the progress of the diseases accelerated with their immune systems affected.”
Back in August this year, the court has also ruled that two similar leukemia cases of former Samsung Electronics workers corresponded to industrial disasters. “The leukemia of the two plaintiffs who worked in the semiconductor manufacturing factory of Samsung Electronics can be deemed to be closely related to their exposure to harmful materials like benzene,” it said at that time.
The explanation by the court is supported by professor Baek Do-myung at the Graduate School of Public Heath of Seoul National University, who has conducted extensive research on the danger of semiconductor plants in 2009 at the request of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. “Regardless of statistical significance and carcinogen detection, such a danger has to be considered to be present if the disease rate of workers is higher than that of ordinary people,” he said at a press interview in August, adding, “A carcinogen not detected now does not mean that it was not present in the past, when the concept of carcinogen control itself was absent.”
At present, the civic group Banolim is moving ahead with compensation for former Samsung Electronics employees who contracted occupational diseases at work. The civic organization has claimed that more than 200 people caught incurable ailments while working for the company.