Regarding the death of a worker who was mainly in charge of guard work at a coal mine from lung cancer, the court recognized the worker as an occupational accident.
According to the legal community on the 6th, the 13th administrative division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Chief Judge Park Jeong-dae) ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the bereaved family of security guard A once morest the Labor Welfare Corporation for the cancellation of non-payment of survivors’ benefits and funeral expenses.
Mr. A worked at two coal mines from 1962 for a total of 26 years and 6 months. Mr. A, who retired in 1989, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016 at the age of 81 and died in August of the same year following fighting the disease.
The bereaved family argued that it was a work-related accident as Mr. A worked in the mine for 5-6 years while working in the mine. In response, the survivors requested survivors’ benefits and funeral expenses in October 2016, but were rejected. After that, I charged once more in May 2021, but when the Labor Welfare Corporation refused once more, I filed a lawsuit.
The Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Corporation refuted that it was not a work-related accident, considering that Mr. A worked in a coal mine, but the period of mining work was short and most of them worked as security guards.
However, the court sided with the bereaved family. It was judged that there was a significant causal relationship between the dust work performed by Mr. A and lung cancer, the cause of death.
The judge said, “There is statistical data showing that even residents of nearby villages, which are somewhat far from coal mines, have a lung cancer incidence rate that is more than 10 times higher than in other places.” There is,” he pointed out.
“Some of the advisory doctors at the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Corporation headquarters said, ‘If you worked in a mine for at least 2-3 years, there is a high correlation between work and lung cancer. In addition, he worked as a security guard around a gang for at least 20 years,” he said. “It is even more difficult to deny the connection between lung cancer and work.”
Reporter Kim Min-ji
