The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service(KCOMWEL) recognized the infertility case at Samsung Electronics as an industrial accident, citing the reason that the reproductive system of the victim has long been exposed to the toxic substances. This is the first recognition ever in the case of infertility as an industrial accident by the state agency
The victim with a surname of Ms.Kim, who had been working in the electronic data systems(EDS) processing at Samsung Electronics in Giheung for 15 years from February 1997 until April 2012, submitted with the KCOMWEL an application for the medical treatment benefit on the infertility claimed to be caused by the occupational disease.
The KCOMWEL granted the application for the medical treatment benefit, upholding the causal relationship between infertility and work in that she could not get pregnant for two years since her marriage in 2006 and kept on trying to conceive via artificial insemination six times and test-tube baby two times with no success.
reported by Yang Woo-ram
translated by Kim Sung-jin