Workers and bereaved families who worked at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor plants filed for industrial accidents. In November last year, Samsung Electronics announced a plan to mediate compensation for occupational diseases for the first time in 11 years, but the problem of occupational diseases has been continuing.
"Banolim," a civic group, held a press conference on March 4 to announce that 14 workers who suffer from occupational diseases such as lung cancer and leukemia have applied for industrial accidents.
This is the 14th time for the group to make a collective application for industrial accidents, which started in 2008. The application for industrial accidents included workers who had worked for Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display and related business partners for a short period of two years and for a long period of more than 20 years.
According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, some of the applicants were already deceased. Lim Han-kyeol, who had been working for two years and six months at Samsung Electronics' in-house partners since 2015, died in October last year at the age of 29 after suffering from acute myeloid leukemia.
"I can't guess why my son was ill," Lim's family said. "I heard there was a connection between the semiconductor industry and rare diseases, and I was sad that the place where my son went to work was a semiconductor factory."
A 42-year-old man who worked for Samsung Electronics' semiconductor production line for more than 20 years was diagnosed with chronic renal failure in 2010 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. She said that she frequently used sick leave due to diseases developed during her career, and was requested by Samsung to resign from her long-time job as well.