An industrial accident compensation claim filed by an employee working at a big mart who suffered from the emotional distress caused by sexual harassment and verbal abuses from a customer at the workplace was recognized as a work-related disease. This is the first benefit claim case that the mental stress of emotional workers is considered as a work-related disease by the Korea Workers' Compensation a...nd Welfare Service.
This adjudication is apparently affected by the revised enforcement decree of the Ministry of Employment and Labor in March this year regarding the recognition of work-related diseases which expanded the criteria to include adjustment disorder and depression due to the verbal abuse and physical violence by the customers.
It is anticipated that from now on a lot of similar claims could be filed with the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service. The Korea Daily Labor News obtained on October 23 the full text of adjudication on the benefit claim filed by an employee hired as a cashier by Emart who does not want to be identified, but only as Ms. Park.
Whenever Ms. Park thinks of the incident which took place at the mart counter on April 27 this year, she experiences fast heartbeat and shortness of breath. A male customer in his 50s with 'fresh breath candies' in his hand leered at her, asking her if it removes bad breath when kissing. She replied to him despite a feeling of humiliation that she does not know, because she has never tasted them before. The male customer then did not want to pay the candies, as he insisted that the candies were complimentary. In this process at the counter, the man went crazy and cursed and sweared at Ms. Park for about 10 minutes. Ms. Park went to see mental health doctors due to her anxiety and insomnia after the mental shock.
The hospital diagnosed that her mental illnesses of adjustment disorder, dysautonomia and insomnia were caused by severe verbal violence and sexual harassment and she needed a medical care. With this diagnosis, Ms. Park filed an industrial accident compensation insurance claim in May this year. After 6 months passed, Ms. Park still suffers from the trauma. The man was punished by a fine of 1 million won(US$ 882.61).
The Seoul Work-related Disease Adjudication Committee decided that the adjustment disorder has a causal relationship between the stressful situation and symptoms, as Ms. Park has never suffered from such mental illnesses before. However, dysautonomia and insomnia were not recognized as work-related diseases.
reported by Ku Tae-woo
edited in English by Kim Sung-jin
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