Coupang: "Claims by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions about delivery drivers' death from overwork are false... Workplace is safe"

Declared as death from overwork every time... "Will hold legal responsibility"
Dominant view in industry also sees it as 'political misuse'

Coupang announced on the 25th that it will not hesitate to take legal action against the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Delivery Workers' Union, which has been persistently making false claims by definitively attributing the recent death of a delivery worker belonging to a specialized delivery company to 'death from overwork.'

Coupang Headquarters, Songpa-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

In a press release issued that day, Coupang stated, "It has been revealed that the death was due to a pre-existing condition, and despite the bereaved family’s plea to stop the political exploitation by the union, the KCTU Delivery Workers' Union is even abusing this tragic death."

Coupang cited data released by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency as the basis for its claim. Coupang said, "Over the past five years, the number of industrial accident deaths among the top 20 companies by number of employees was 219, whereas during the same period, Coupang had only one. Furthermore, the death rate per 10,000 employees among the top 10 companies over five years was 25 times higher than that of Coupang, which ranks third in number of employees."

Coupang also referred to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, emphasizing that although there have been more than 400 industrial accident deaths in the logistics and transportation industry over the past five years, considering that Coupang operates over 100 logistics centers in 30 regions nationwide, the number of deaths due to industrial accidents is virtually 'zero.'

Coupang added, "Cardiovascular diseases are so common that they rank as the second leading cause of death in Korea, so the delivery workers' union’s repeated assertion that delivery workers die from 'death by overwork' every time a delivery worker passes away is unconvincing." According to Statistics Korea, the leading cause of death last year was cancer (83,378 deaths), followed by cardiovascular diseases with 69,033 deaths.

Within the industry, there is a prevailing view that the delivery workers' union politically exploits the deaths of delivery workers affiliated with various courier companies such as CJ Logistics and Logen by attributing them to death from overwork regardless of pre-existing conditions or relevance to work. An industry official said, "If the union’s 'indiscriminate witch hunt' expands, it could negatively impact the entire industry, potentially hindering the employment of middle-aged and elderly workers and causing consumer harm."

Earlier, on the 13th, the KCTU Delivery Workers' Union accused Coupang of responsibility, claiming that delivery worker A, belonging to a specialized delivery company, died from 'death by overwork' during early morning delivery. On that day, a press conference was held near Coupang’s Gunpo Camp, reiterating that "A died from death by overwork." However, the National Forensic Service (NFS), which conducted an autopsy on A, verbally concluded that the cause of death was "presumed to be 'cardiomegaly' due to a pre-existing condition that had been ongoing."

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