Song Young-gil "Triple hardships of delivery workers... urgent need to improve poor working conditions"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Song Young-gil, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, promised on the 9th to swiftly improve the working conditions for delivery workers who are suffering from the triple hardships of COVID-19, increased workload, and extreme heat.

On the same day at the National Assembly, Song met with delivery workers and said, "There have been incidents where delivery workers have died, and many complain of breathing difficulties after working 12 hours wearing masks," adding, "It is urgent to reduce the excessive workload to improve the poor working environment." He also stated, "We will listen to labor union opinions and carefully review the details to promptly implement measures against the heatwave," and "The leadership will also experience the working environment firsthand at the site."

This meeting was organized to check the implementation status of the second social agreement to prevent overwork deaths among delivery workers and to seek improvement measures. Previously, the delivery industry labor and management had reached a final agreement to exclude delivery workers from sorting tasks and to limit the weekly working hours to no more than 60 hours.

Delivery workers gave on-site testimonies. Jo Kang-hyun, head of the Delivery Industry Organization Bureau of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Solidarity Union, said, "At a site with about 80 workers, there is only one water purifier, no air conditioning, and ventilation facilities do not operate in the basement level 2 where unloading work is carried out," urging, "The management must immediately implement facility improvements."

Bang Jeong-in, head of the Lotte Eunpyeong branch, said, "At a terminal with about 70 people, there are two men's restrooms and one women's restroom," and added, "We have discussed deploying sorting personnel several times since last year, but it has been delayed." Kim Sa-seong, head of the CJ Bundang branch, said, "The situation in Bundang is the same," and stated, "The e-commerce market is growing, but the companies are complacent. We ask the party and government to take measures so improvements can be made quickly."

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