Samsung ignores cancer deaths of employees

Posted on : 2012-03-07 14:04 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Semiconductor workers who died of cancer receive no acknowledgment from electronics giant
 a watchdog for semiconductor workers’ health and human rights
a watchdog for semiconductor workers’ health and human rights

By Park Hyun-jung, Staff Writer 

“Who in this world is interested when someone applies for industrial accident compensation for breast cancer? They will only be a little interested if you apply on the 6th, the fifth anniversary of Hwang Yu-mi’s death...it’s regrettable that the application has come so late.”

Speaking at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul’s Jongno district Tuesday, Lee Jong-ran, an activist with the semiconductor worker health and human rights watchdog Banollim, tearfully recalled Kim Do-eun, who passed away suddenly three days prior at the age of 35. Kim filed a claim for compensation with Banollim from Samsung, but the organization had waited until the anniversary of Hwang’s death to file it. It was hoped that the coincidence of these dates would attract media attention.

Kim was a mother of two children and a late-stage breast cancer patient. In late 2011, she started preparing her industrial accident claim, made through Banollim to the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service (COMWEL). Lee filed a survivors’ benefits claim on her behalf Tuesday as scheduled.

Kim joined Samsung Electronics in 1995 as a 19-year-old. She worked on the semiconductor production line at the company’s Giheung plant before quitting the job ahead of her January 2000 wedding. She and her husband went on to run a small convenience store in Gwangju. Three years ago, she was told she had stage 3 breast cancer.

Her battle against the disease was difficult, and there were times when she could not afford expensive treatment. The referral submitted by her general practitioner read, “Given that it takes several years from the breast cancer’s first appearance to manifest clinical symptoms, it is believed there was at least some causal link between the patient’s working conditions at Samsung Electronics from 1995 to 2000 (based on patient accounts of radioactivity exposure and contact with chemicals) and the disease’s occurrence.”

Lee said that while doing research to prepare for the industrial accident claim, she found radioactivity listed as a cause of breast cancer.

“There were cases in Sweden and Finland where industrial accident claims were recognized after analysis showed that the shift work associated with nighttime labor caused breast cancer,” she noted.

Banollim said that six other people had been diagnosed with breast cancer, one of whom died, after working at the same plant as Kim. A total of 23 people, including Kim, have filed industrial accident claims in connection with semiconductor and electronics work. Eighteen of the 22 claims, not including four that are currently pending review, were rejected. Last June, Seoul Administrative Court recognized hazardous conditions for Hwang Yu-mi and Lee Suk-yeong, two semiconductor production line workers at Samsung Electronics’ Giheung plant who died of leukemia. COMWEL appealed the ruling.

Hwang’s father Sang-gi, 57, who first brought the issue of leukemia among Samsung workers to public attention in 2007, held a one-person demonstration on Tuesday calling on the government to take responsibility for diseases associated with work at semiconductors and electronics plants. The demonstration at Gwanghwamun Square is to last until Mar. 31.

Hwang offered his own words of memorial on behalf of Kim Do-eun’s family.

“It’s been five years since Yu-mi died, and they still haven’t solved the problem,” he said. “I haven’t even been able to have a conversation with anyone at Samsung. It’s the same with government people. We can’t keep dying like this. Hurry up and fix this problem.”

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