"80-Hour Workweek and Concealment of Work Records Not True"…London Bagel Museum Refutes Overwork Death Claims

"Average Weekly Working Hours During Employment: 44.1 Hours"
"All Available Documents Provided to the Bereaved Family"

LBM, which operates the well-known bakery London Bagel Museum, has refuted the bereaved family's claim of death from overwork regarding the death of an employee in their twenties, stating, "It is not true that the employee worked 21 hours a day or 80 hours a week."

London Bagel Museum store. London Bagel Museum Instagram

On October 28, LBM released an official statement saying, "We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague," and added, "We have taken this opportunity to review our entire attendance management system."

LBM stated, "The average weekly working hours for our employees is 43.5 hours. While we cannot completely rule out the possibility that there may have been overtime work not identified by headquarters during busy periods leading up to store openings, we find the family's claim that the employee worked up to 80 hours a week to be completely unacceptable."

They continued, "The deceased applied for overtime work a total of seven times over 13 months after joining the company in May last year, and his average weekly working hours during his employment were 44.1 hours, which is similar to the company-wide average of 43.5 hours per week."

LBM also denied allegations of "concealing work records." The company said, "Reports that we concealed work records from the bereaved family or refused to provide them are completely untrue. In response to the family's request for documents to apply for industrial accident compensation, we provided all available materials, including the employment contract, work schedules, and pay statements."

Regarding the family's claim that the deceased had not eaten for about 15 hours before his death due to excessive workload, the company explained, "Colleagues who worked with him the day before his death offered him food, but he declined, saying, 'I'm not hungry. I'll eat something delicious later,' and thus skipped the meal."

Furthermore, the company stated, "We provide all employees with a one-hour break for every eight hours of work in accordance with the Labor Standards Act. With over 850 employees growing the company together, it is our top priority to ensure a stable working environment for them." The company added, "We will fully cooperate with the upcoming labor office investigation and will conduct company-wide training for all employees to prevent a recurrence of such incidents."

"Over 80 Hours of Work in the Week Before Death," Family Claims Death from Overwork

In July, employee A (26) was found dead at the London Bagel Museum staff accommodation in Michuhol-gu, Incheon. The police reportedly closed the case, having found no evidence of a crime.

However, the bereaved family claimed that A died from overwork due to extreme work pressure and applied for industrial accident compensation on October 28. According to Yonhap News, A, who was a healthy young man standing 185 cm tall and weighing 80 kg, endured 80 hours and 12 minutes of work in the week before his death. It is also estimated that A worked an average of 60 hours and 21 minutes per week over the 12 weeks prior to his death. This meets the criteria for acute, short-term, and long-term overwork as defined by the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service.

In relation to this, the Justice Party issued a statement the previous day, saying, "The deceased's employment contract was written based on more than 14 hours of overtime per week, violating the 52-hour workweek limit, and the actual working hours were even longer. The deceased worked at four different locations during his 14 months at the company, moving from Gangnam to Suwon and then to Incheon, and his contract was renewed three times."

The statement continued, "On the day before his death, the deceased started work at 9 a.m. and finished just before midnight. Five days before his death, he worked for 21 hours straight. It is suspected that a combination of chronic and acute overwork may have led to his death from overwork."