SEOUL - The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service announced on Friday that the congenital diseases of children born to mothers who worked at Samsung Electronics Co. during their pregnancies are to be recognized as industrial accidents. This landmark decision comes as a result of claims by three women who worked as operators at the chipmaker and sought workplace accident compensation for their children's congenital ailments.
According to Yonhap News Agency, a committee responsible for overseeing compensation matters deliberated on the claims and found a significant causal link between the children's diseases and the mothers' work environments at Samsung. "The considerable causality between their children's diseases and the work they carried out has been recognized," the service stated, marking a pivotal moment in the recognition of workplace-related health risks.
The cases, which were filed for compensation in 2021, involve a range of congenital diseases affecting the kidney, throat, and bladder of the children born to these employees. This acknowledgment by the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service is the second of its kind since the revised Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act was enacted last year. The first case under the revised act involved a nurse whose child was born with a congenital brain disease and was approved in December.
With this recent announcement, South Korea has recognized a total of eight cases where children were born with congenital diseases due to unsafe work environments faced by their mothers. This total includes four cases that were acknowledged by the Supreme Court in 2020, before the implementation of the revised act. Currently, epidemiological investigations for two additional cases are underway, indicating a growing awareness and acknowledgment of the impacts of occupational hazards on reproductive health.