51-Hour Workweek → Weekend Hiking Heart Attack... Court Rules "Not Work-Related Injury"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The family of a worker who died from acute myocardial infarction during a weekend hike after working nearly 52 hours a week filed an administrative lawsuit demanding "payment of survivor benefits and funeral expenses," but the court did not accept it.

According to the legal community on the 19th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 13 (Presiding Judge Park Jeongdae) recently ruled against the plaintiff in the first trial of the lawsuit filed by Mr. A's family against the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service to cancel the non-payment of survivor benefits and funeral expenses.

Earlier, Mr. A was promoted to director at his company and went hiking on a weekend in February 2017, one month later, where he died of acute myocardial infarction at the summit. It was investigated that Mr. A's working hours in the week before the onset were 51 hours and 29 minutes. The average weekly working hours for the 12 weeks prior to that period, excluding that week, were 47 hours and 25 minutes. The family requested survivor benefits and funeral expenses in June 2018, but the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service refused, stating "there is no causal relationship between work and death."

The family filed an administrative lawsuit. During the trial, they emphasized, "There was severe mental tension from checking customer complaint emails late at night and dealing with related parties by phone. The workload increased during the 12 weeks before death, and the work-related burden related to the promotion was significant. Overwork and stress accumulated due to overseas business trips, etc."

The first trial court stated, "It is difficult to conclude that the work-related stress exceeded the level normally experienced by ordinary workers," and did not accept the family's claims.

The court said, "(According to the family's claim) even if working hours include all flight times during overseas business trips, the average weekly working hours for the 12 weeks before onset exceed 52 hours, which only increases the relevance between work and illness, but that alone does not recognize causality."

Furthermore, "According to testimonies from colleagues and the employer, there seemed to be work-related stress in the process of reflecting customer requests," but "the deceased did not oversee all tasks and was only responsible for certain product groups, so it is difficult to conclude that the stress exceeded the level normally experienced by ordinary workers."

The court added, "Although there was a finding of hyperlipidemia in the health checkup, there is no evidence that treatment was received," and "Even if he had quit smoking at that time, he had a 15-year history of smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and it cannot be ruled out that sudden hiking in near-freezing temperatures caused strain leading to death." Since the family did not appeal, this ruling was finalized as is.