South Korean Delivery workers call them a “legal blind spot” and say the novel coronavirus business is a deadly place to bring an unprecedented boom to the online business.
Labor rights in South Korea have made tremendous progress over the past few decades but couriers say they have benefited little.
“Work-life balance? It’s another world,” he said Jeong Sang-rock511, Contract worker delivering parcels for Han Najin Transportation, one of South Korea’s two largest delivery companies.
Shipping has increased by 12% per year in South Korea since the rise of online shipping in 2004, followed by an increase of 23% from February to October this year compared to February this year.
Large delivery companies are enjoying strong profits. CJ Logistics reported a 21% increase in first half operating profit and a 35% increase in Henjin Transportation. Those companies represent about 64% of the delivery market.
Most of South Korea’s 54,000 delivery workers are placed under sub-contracts that deny them safety and benefits to regular employees.
Workers and union officials say legal loopholes put them under pressure to put them in inadvertent hours – conditions, which they say contributed to the deaths.
Labor activists say they have compiled accounts from relatives of 14 people whose deaths this year they attributed to a system that means workers have to work long hours for ultimate satisfaction.
Was one of the dead Kim Won-jong Who developed difficulty breathing at work. Her father blamed her for the relentless demands of her job.
“He was running around, walking 14 hours without a meal,” his father said. Kim Sam-Young, Said at a labor rally in October as he kept a portrait of his son.
Other delivery workers, SEO Hyung-Wook, Suffered chest pain and shortness of breath at work and died after heart failure, his sister said. He also blamed work pressure.
The trade union said one worker had committed suicide by taking note of the difficulties at work.
“Fifteen people have already died, which is ironic, because we are working to live, not to die,” said Jiong.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy has a cap on the weekly working hours of full-time workers, introduced by powerful unions and holidays, under reforms over the past decade.
But delivery people and others working under sub-contracts are considered self-employed and do not receive the minimum hourly wage, or overtime, and most people have no insurance for job injuries.
According to government figures, there are about 2.5 million such workers, which is about%% of the workforce.
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