Costco Hanam Branch 29-Year-Old Worker’s Bereaved Family Frustrated
"Three Weeks Since Death, No Statement from Employer"
Ministry of Employment and Labor Investigates Violation of Serious Accident Punishment Act
A 29-year-old worker who was organizing shopping carts while walking 17 km in a large mart parking lot in the scorching heat died from a heat-related illness on the 19th of last month, and the bereaved family expressed their outrage toward the company.
The deceased, Mr. A’s father, Kim, stated on CBS Radio’s "Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show" on the 12th, “My son died while working, but the headquarters said the family should handle the industrial accident processing themselves,” adding that even three weeks after the death, no one from the company has expressed any official stance.
Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is observing the site of a worker's fatal accident at Costco Hanam branch on the 11th. [Image source=Yonhap News]
According to Mr. Kim, Mr. A, who worked at Costco Hanam branch, joined the company in 2019 and was initially assigned as a cashier before being reassigned to parking duties from the 5th of last month. He was responsible for organizing and collecting shopping carts, and the accident occurred just two weeks after the reassignment.
At that time, Mr. A pushed about 200 carts every hour from noon in the outdoor parking lot to the store entrance. During work, he said he was “not feeling well,” rested on one side of the parking lot, collapsed, and was taken to the hospital but ultimately passed away.
On that day, the area was under a heatwave warning for the second consecutive day, with the daytime high temperature reaching 33 degrees Celsius. The parking lot where Mr. A worked was fully open to the outside on all walls, exposed to sunlight, and the air conditioning was not properly used. The distance he moved in the parking lot without a single cooling fan reached 17 km.
Mr. Kim pointed out the poor working conditions, saying, “(The company) minimized air conditioning usage by time slots for cost-saving purposes and there was no proper resting space,” adding, “As far as I know, they didn’t even provide a cooling fan or any circulation device.”
Records of Mr. A's activities and text messages during his lifetime, disclosed by the deceased's father. [Image source=Captured from CBS YouTube screen]
He also said, “My son usually walked 26 km during a 10-hour shift. Two days before his death, he walked 26 km, and the day before, 22 km.” In fact, a text message Mr. A sent to a colleague two days before his death complained that he had walked a total of “43,000 steps in 10 hours.”
Mr. Kim added, “Break times were not properly observed. They were supposed to rest for 15 minutes every 3 hours, but according to my son, ‘Even after 3 hours, it took 9 minutes to go back and forth to the resting area on the 5th floor, so he rather squatted down and rested in a corner of the parking lot.’”
There was also a claim that the day before the accident, Mr. A said, “I need to go to the hospital tomorrow,” complaining of shoulder and chest pain along with difficulty breathing. Mr. Kim insisted, “My son was healthy and performed his duties without any underlying illness,” and claimed, “There were 6 to 7 fewer parking staff than other branches, so he was overworked.”
Mr. Kim said about his son, “I have heard many compliments from those around him that he was a diligent worker who fulfilled his duties at work. I am proud of him,” and added, “Although he is not here now, I miss him very much.”
Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi Branch of the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s Metropolitan Serious Accident Investigation Division announced on the 12th that it has launched an investigation into whether the accident violated the Serious Accident Punishment Act. On the 11th, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, visited Costco Hanam branch to hold an on-site meeting on worker safety measures against heatwaves and toured the employee break rooms.
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