[Asia Exclusive] Kang Soon-hee, President of Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, "Establishing a 'One-Click' Labor Welfare Hub Covering Labor and Business"

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Kang Soon-hee, President of the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, is being interviewed by Asia Economy. / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Interview = Choi Il-gwon, Head of Economic Department; Summary = Reporter Son Sun-hee] "The biggest misconception about the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (KCOMWEL) is that it is just an ‘industrial accident insurance management organization.’ While industrial accident-related tasks are part of our work, the scope of the organization’s business is much broader. The Service takes full responsibility for all types of risks arising in the labor society, covering the entire labor life of workers and business life of employers. We are building a ‘Labor Welfare Hub’ that allows convenient one-click access to services from industrial accident compensation to medical care."

Last month marked the ‘one-year anniversary’ of Kang Soon-hee’s appointment as the President of KCOMWEL. In a recent interview with Asia Economy at the Seoul Southern Branch office of KCOMWEL, she elaborated on her vision for the ‘Welfare Hub.’ Given that the Service employs over 10,000 people and runs various projects in labor and welfare fields (industrial accident compensation, medical care, industrial accident and employment insurance, medical services, welfare, job stability support), she introduced the ‘hub’ concept to organically connect these diverse operations, which had previously been handled in isolation.

President Kang pointed out the internal challenges by saying, "Because the organization is so large and handles many projects, everyone has been focusing only on their own tasks within the Service. Even though linking these could create synergy effects, such aspects were neglected."

She emphasized again, "There are many very heterogeneous projects, and without a proper system, these could become patchworks. This year, our goal is to systematize work based on digital and data, and the concept we have developed for this is the Labor Welfare Hub."

When asked about her reflections on completing one year as President of KCOMWEL, she immediately recalled COVID-19. Her inauguration on February 24 last year came just one day after the domestic COVID-19 alert was raised to the ‘serious’ level for the first time. The inauguration ceremony, which had been thoroughly prepared, was canceled, and she had to jump straight into the field to confront the unprecedented crisis.

Since then, the labor market was hit hard. As the organization responsible for labor welfare, KCOMWEL became busier. It also handles loans to small business owners and self-employed individuals and processes applications and payments for government-supported job stability funds. For workers who lost their jobs without receiving wages, the Service paid wage claims and also ran livelihood stabilization loan programs.

Below is a Q&A with President Kang.

-You have spent a year dealing with COVID-19.

▲I couldn’t hold an inauguration ceremony. I had prepared a stylish presentation, but it was canceled the day before due to the COVID alert being raised to the serious level. Instead, I shared the presentation materials online, which turned out to be better. Thanks to that, I was able to share the content with all 10,000 employees nationwide.

-Since your appointment, you have continuously emphasized the concept of the ‘Labor Welfare Hub.’

▲The core idea is ‘easy and broader access.’ Despite various systems, some people do not receive benefits fully or find it difficult to access them. Blind spots still exist. Over the past year since my appointment, we have significantly systematized operations. For example, in the industrial accident compensation and medical care fields, we established a non-face-to-face one-click system last year. Previously, the procedures were very complicated and difficult, but now, by linking hospital data, we have shortened the disease verification process.

-Does this mean industrial accident compensation can now be applied for online?

▲Yes. It’s not perfect yet, but COVID-19 became an opportunity to shift much of the Service’s work to untact (contactless) methods. This year, we plan to further expand non-face-to-face processing of industrial accident compensation and build a database (DB) to efficiently identify causality in occupational diseases. This is what I have emphasized as the ‘scientification of labor welfare administration’ since my appointment.

-Is the establishment of the ‘Labor Welfare Big Data Center’ part of the same effort?

▲When shifting to non-face-to-face work, a system to oversee everything is necessary. That’s why we created the Big Data Center. Currently, the Service holds over 150 billion pieces of big data in insurance, welfare, and medical fields. All administrative information about ‘working people’ from employment to unemployment is recorded. Until now, this data was used individually as simple information. Although discovering, selecting, and classifying this data is challenging, if technically well organized, it becomes tremendous data. The goal is to establish the Big Data Center within this year. To this end, we formed a related task force (TF) team in August last year.

-The government’s nationwide employment insurance is also managed by the Service. Starting in July, special-type workers (teukso hyeongtae geunrosongsa, or ‘special-type workers’) will be included, followed by self-employed individuals. What is the current status of this initiative?

▲Unlike standardized existing workers, special-type workers and the self-employed have many exceptional cases, making this a very difficult task. Even identifying income, which is the basis for insurance premium assessment, is not easy. Each special-type worker’s situation differs. This means frontline staff are under great pressure. Ultimately, a supporting IT system is essential. We have formed a related TF to push this forward. Within this year, we plan to establish a social dialogue body to discuss key issues such as enrollment methods for special-type workers. Above all, the Service will actively participate to ensure that field difficulties are well communicated and reflected in policies.

-What is your outlook on the increase in employment insurance premiums?

▲This is a matter for tripartite discussions among labor, management, and government. Of course, the Service participates and provides feedback on field conditions. Since this is a contentious issue, I understand that no decision has been made yet on whether to raise premiums. However, it will be difficult not to increase them. Because income assessment for special-type workers is challenging, forecasting is difficult. Therefore, we are conducting internal discussions with various scenarios alongside the current financial situation. I believe a rate increase is inevitable.

-Is this due to the inclusion of special-type workers in employment insurance?

▲Not necessarily. Even with the existing labor market, unemployment benefits were enormous. The fund could not sustain unemployment benefits amounting to 1 trillion won per month. Moreover, the labor market is unlikely to improve significantly this year. Since unemployment benefits are linked to the minimum wage, which has risen for two consecutive years, the financial capacity is strained.

-Industrial accident insurance claims have not decreased as expected either.

▲It’s a dilemma. We have made it easier to apply and expanded coverage through system improvements, which led to a significant increase in claims. Last year alone, claims increased by 150,000, with 90% recognized as industrial accidents. This means more premiums need to be collected, but business owners’ situations have worsened due to COVID-19. Among the four major insurances, industrial accident insurance is the only one expected to run a surplus, but the surplus margin has shrunk due to financial burdens.

-This seems to be a challenge for the Service.

▲Ultimately, our economy must recover healthily so that there is the capacity to pay premiums and industrial accidents decrease. We are in a transitional period. We must prevent industrial accidents from occurring, but if they do, proper protection is our responsibility.

-What are your goals for this year?

▲A lot has happened intensively over the past year. If last year, busy with COVID-19, was a period for planning and preparing new projects, this year I want to make it the first year of actual achievements.