"I will improve the speed and fairness of rulings so that workers filing injury claims do not suffer through long waits. I will cut unnecessary procedures and delays, and strengthen our capacity to investigate and rule on occupational diseases."
Park Seung-heup, who took office on Sept. 30 as the 11th president of the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, set out reform of the industrial accident approval system as his opening priority. Park is the first labor activist to lead the agency since its founding, and attention is focused on whether he can craft solutions from the perspective of the workplace.
According to data on industrial accidents by age group that Rep. Park Hae-chul of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, obtained from the service on the same day, total industrial accident claims last year — combining accidents, diseases and commuting injuries — came to 185,092, up 34,230 from 150,862 in 2022.
The overall approval rate, by contrast, fell from 90.3% in 2022 to 85.1% last year, and stood at 81.9% in the first half of this year. The approval rate for workplace accidents held at around 95%, easing from 96.8% in 2022 to 95.6% in the first half of this year. The decline instead reflects the approval rate for occupational diseases, which dropped from 62.7% in 2022 to 54.3% in the first half of this year.
The drop was steepest among older workers aged 60 and over. That group accounted for 39.4% of all claims last year, and its approval rate fell from 84.8% in 2022 to 73.0% in the first half of this year. By comparison, the approval rate for workers in their 20s reached 95.1% in the first half of this year.
Labor groups say the structural causes of the falling approval rate must be identified first. They argue it should be clearly determined whether the cause is review delays driven by the surge in claims, or a more conservative turn in the review standards themselves.
"With industrial accident claims from older workers rising, a sharp drop in the approval rate is evidence that the current recognition system does not sufficiently reflect the characteristics of occupational diseases and older workers," Rep. Park Hae-chul said. "The work-relatedness of illnesses should be examined closely, and recognition standards and procedures should be improved to match reality."
Park Seung-heup has worked to strengthen the social safety net, including expanding industrial accident insurance and eliminating unpaid wages. A graduate of Chuncheon High School and the Department of Korean Language Education at Seoul National University, Park founded the Korea Contingent Workers' Center in 1999 and served as its first director. Park also served as head of the Labor Today newspaper, co-chair of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Jobs Committee and chairman of the Chun Tae-il Foundation.
