Labor, Management, and Government Agree to Expand Industrial Accident Insurance for Delivery Workers... Reducing Blind Spots

The Tripartite Commission Announces Agreement on 'Digital Platform Labor Delivery Sector Subcommittee'
Reevaluation of Industrial Accident Insurance Application Criteria...Improvement Plan for Exemption Requests Established

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Labor, management, and government have agreed to cooperate in expanding industrial accident insurance coverage for delivery workers. They agreed to reduce blind spots in industrial accident insurance by preventing the abuse of exemption applications.

The Economic, Social and Labor Council, a presidential social dialogue body, announced on the 16th the “Labor-Management-Government Agreement to Eliminate Blind Spots in Industrial Accident Insurance for Delivery Workers” with these contents.

The “Digital Platform Labor Delivery Sector Subcommittee” within the Economic, Social and Labor Council agreed to review the criteria for applying industrial accident insurance to delivery workers and to prepare improvement measures to prevent the abuse of exemption applications.

This agreement is significant as a result of labor, management, and government sharing the view that the social safety net for delivery workers exposed to accident risks should be strengthened amid the surge in delivery work following the spread of COVID-19. From January to April this year, the number of traffic accident deaths involving motorcycles, the main means of delivery, increased by about 15% compared to the same period last year.

Despite the high accident risk for delivery workers, the industrial accident insurance subscription rate is known to be very low, below 10%. The low subscription rate is analyzed to be due to the exclusivity requirement that delivery workers must meet to be covered by industrial accident insurance and the abuse of exemption clauses.

Accordingly, labor, management, and government agreed to review the criteria for applying industrial accident insurance to delivery workers and to prepare improvement measures to reduce blind spots in industrial accident insurance by preventing the abuse of exemption applications.

As delivery work with various forms, such as using multiple platforms or short-term delivery workers, increases, there is a need to improve the system considering the characteristics of the delivery industry and delivery workers’ work.

Labor, management, and government agreed that all working people should be protected from accidents and decided to promote social discussions on system improvements, including the collection system, in the future.

They also agreed to promote the signing of a business agreement between the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service and delivery platform-related industries. Through information sharing, they aimed to identify the current status necessary for expanding industrial accident insurance coverage for platform delivery workers and improving the industrial accident insurance system, including appropriate and prompt compensation proportional to income.

On the same day, a signing ceremony for a business agreement on information sharing between the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service and Moa Planet, a delivery agency program company, Superhero, was held.

The Digital Platform Labor Delivery Sector Subcommittee, chaired by Park Chan-im, senior researcher at the Korea Labor Institute, included delivery platform stakeholders such as Park Jung-hoon, chairman of Rider Union; Lee Seung-hoon, head of external cooperation at Delivery Hero Korea; and Jung Tae-sik, head of Moa Planet.

Labor, management, government, and public interest committee members included Song Myung-jin, director of the organizational strategy team at the Federation of Korean Trade Unions; Lee Jun-hee, head of labor-management relations and legislation team at the Korea Employers Federation; Kang Geom-yun, director of the Employment Discrimination Improvement Division at the Ministry of Employment and Labor; Kwon Oh-sung, professor at Sungshin Women’s University; and Min Yeon-ju, team leader of Logistics Policy 4.0 at the Korea Transport Institute.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.