South Korean court docket says employee’s rare sickness linked to Samsung

South Korea’s Supreme Court said a former employee in a Samsung LCD manufacturing unit who changed into recognized with more than one sclerosis should be identified as having an occupationally brought on disease, overturning decreased court docket verdicts that held a lack of proof against the employee. In a milestone choice that might resource different sickened tech people suffering to prove the foundation of their sicknesses, the Supreme Court dominated there has been a widespread hyperlink between Lee Hee-jin’s disease and workplace hazards and her working conditions.

Lower courts had denied her declaration, partly because no facts of her place of job conditions had been publicly available. The Labor Ministry and Samsung refused to reveal them when a decreased court docket requested the records, mentioning change secrets. In its ruling Tuesday, the courtroom said the absence of proof, due to Samsung’s refusal to offer the statistics and an inadequate investigation by using the government, should no longer be held against the sickened worker. Instead, it stated that such unique circumstances should be considered in favor of the employee.

Lee, 33, started to work at a Samsung LCD manufacturing facility in Cheonan, south of Seoul, in 2002 when she was an excessive faculty senior. She evaluated almost 100 show panels in keeping an hour on a conveyor belt, searching out faulty panels and wiping them with isopropyl alcohol. She labored next to meeting traces that used other chemical compounds. Three years after joining Samsung Electronics, she first said the signs of multiple sclerosis, an unprecedented sickness that affects the valuable fearful device. The average age for reporting more than one sclerosis in South Korea is 38. She left Samsung in 2007.

Lee first filed a claim in 2010 with a central authority agency, which denied her compensation request. She took her case to the courts and lost two times earlier than Tuesday’s victory. “It was a long journey, but I’m so glad,” Lee texted. She is the 1/3 Samsung worker to record more than one sclerosis and win in the courtroom but the first to win inside the Supreme Court, in step with SHARPS, a group that advocates technology workers’ fitness.

The Supreme Court said the high degree of physical and intellectual stress in her job, long-running hours, everyday use of a chemical, viable exposure to other chemical substances used nearby by assembly strains, and the loss of her family history of the ailment were enough to rule inside the employees prefer.
The ruling is a blow to Samsung Electronics and two government corporations, the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. The corporations levy normal charges on employers and determine repayment while people record claims of occupational illnesses. The Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service became the defendant in the case.

A panel of four Supreme Court justices faulted the authority organizations for failing to degree employees’ exposure tiers at some point in their early research. The ruling also stated that Samsung Electronics and the Labor Ministry refused to disclose information about chemical pollution in the LCD manufacturing facility, making it impossible for the worker to show the kind of chemical substances she was exposed to or the extent of her exposure.
Lee’s case was reported by the Associated Press in 2016, which is a condone of many wherein the government and Samsung denied people key protection statistics that had to win the country’s compensation. Samsung declined to comment Wednesday on the Supreme Court ruling. In its decision, the court identified for the first time the problems of proving occupational diseases for employees in the superfast industry.

In the semiconductor and show industries with a shorter history than more traditional industries, little research on occupational disorders is to be had. The varieties of chemical substances used in manufacturing change often, and the names of chemical substances are usually considered when exchanging secrets and techniques. The courtroom urged the government enterprise to be genuine in its mission to shield employees suffering from grave illnesses and a shortage of income, now not to find fault either with the worker or business enterprise. It stated that the business enterprise’s role as an issuer of social insurance is even more important within the present-day tech industry, which has unknown risks involving worker sacrifices.

Activists led via SHARPS have campaigned for years to reform the compensation gadget, announcing it’s unfair that people have the onus of proving their case. The trouble of acquiring state compensation has left many people with few options. In 2015, Samsung presented an economic resource that blanketed scientific charges and a few incomes for workers with any of 26 sicknesses along with cancer and more than one sclerosis. Some workers or their families rejected what they called a unilateral, secretive deal and demanded that Samsung express regret simply for the illnesses and offer transparent compensation.

RELATED POSTS :

John R. Wright
Social media ninja. Freelance web trailblazer. Extreme problem solver. Music fanatic. Spent several months marketing pubic lice in the financial sector. Spent 2002-2008 supervising the production of ice cream in Africa. Had some great experience developing robotic shrimp in the aftermarket. Spent several years getting my feet wet with puppets in Miami, FL. Was quite successful at supervising the production of corncob pipes worldwide. What gets me going now is working with electric trains in Mexico.