KOSHA Supports Health Checkups for Substitute Drivers in Partnership with Kakao

The headquarters of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency located in Jung-gu, Ulsan.
Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Lee Junhyung] The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) is partnering with Kakao Mobility to support health checkups for designated driver service workers. The agency will also develop a health management platform for platform workers in collaboration with Kakao Mobility.

On the 29th, KOSHA announced that it signed a business agreement with Kakao Mobility to provide health checkup support for designated drivers nationwide starting next month. The health checkups will be conducted at 26 mobile worker rest centers across the country, targeting approximately 10,000 designated drivers. KOSHA will cover 80% of the health checkup costs, while Kakao Mobility will support the remaining 20% of the designated drivers' out-of-pocket expenses. The program will run until the end of November, but may end early if the budget is exhausted.

To accommodate designated drivers who mainly work at night, KOSHA will also offer on-site health checkups. From 5 PM to 8 PM, mobile health screening buses will be dispatched to the mobile worker rest centers to provide examinations and health consultation services. During the daytime, designated drivers can receive checkups at designated hospitals under agreement, such as the Korea Industrial Health Association and KMI Korea Medical Institute branches nationwide.

Post-checkup follow-up care will also be provided. KOSHA will conduct secondary examinations for designated drivers classified as high-risk based on their test results. If necessary, health consultations will be offered at KOSHA’s Worker Health Centers or mobile worker rest centers nationwide.

Additionally, Kakao Mobility will collaborate with KOSHA to build a health management platform for platform workers. Kakao Mobility has expressed its intention to continuously cooperate with KOSHA throughout the platform development process. Ryu Geungseon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, stated, “We hope this becomes a health protection service that designated drivers can truly feel the benefits of,” and added, “We hope many workers will participate.”

KOSHA plans to gradually expand its health checkup support program for platform workers. Since last year, the agency has supported health checkup costs for special-type workers to address blind spots in occupational safety and health. To improve accessibility to health checkups, the number of supported occupations increased from four last year to seven this year.

Ahn Jongju, Director of KOSHA, said, “Supporting health checkups is a project to protect people working in health blind spots,” and added, “We will continue to provide attention and support so that special-type workers can work more safely and healthily.”

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