Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service Recognizes Late Nurse Seo Ji-yoon's Death as Occupational Disease

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service announced on the 9th that it has recognized the death of the late nurse Seo Ji-yoon, who worked at Seoul Medical Center last year and took her own life, as a work-related illness. This conclusion was reached after a review by the Seoul Work-Related Disease Judgment Committee regarding the bereaved family's claim for survivor benefits and funeral expenses.

Nurse Seo Ji-yoon, who worked at Seoul Medical Center under the Seoul Metropolitan Government, was found dead at her home on January 5 last year, and suspicions were raised that workplace bullying was the background of her death. Subsequently, the seriousness of bullying within the medical industry, known as 'Taeum,' became a social controversy.

In this regard, the Work-Related Disease Judgment Committee held a review meeting on the 29th of last month and heard statements from the bereaved family and their representatives. After reviewing related materials, it was recognized that she suffered mental distress related to work and workplace conditions, and it was judged reasonable to view that she made an extreme choice in a state of impaired normal cognitive ability due to accumulated work-related overwork and stress. Accordingly, the deceased's death was deemed to have a significant causal relationship with her work.

Previously, in July 2019, the Service had specified recognition criteria to allow mental illnesses caused by work-related mental stress such as workplace bullying and verbal abuse from customers to be recognized as industrial accidents. According to the Service, the number of industrial accident claims for mental illnesses increased from only 137 cases in 2014 to 331 cases in 2019 after the recognition criteria were specified. The number of recognized industrial accidents also rose sharply from 47 cases in 2014 to 231 cases in 2019.

The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, a public institution under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, carries out projects such as industrial accident and employment insurance services, industrial accident medical services, and labor welfare services. Headquartered in Ulsan, it operates six regional headquarters and 56 branches nationwide from Seoul to Jeju, 10 directly managed hospitals, 2 clinics, 3 research institutes including the Human Resources Development Institute and the Workers' Welfare Research Institute, and one call center.

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