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Bereaved family members of Samsung employees who contracted leukemia while working at the company��셲 semiconductor factory hold a demonstration in front of the Korean Workers��� Compensation and Welfare Service, July 14. (Photo by Ryu Woo-jong)
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Worker allies say the strict guidelines for compensation leave room for continued company abuse
By Kim Jae-seob, Senior Staff Writer Samsung Electronics has decided to pay the cancer treatment costs of former employees at its semiconductor and LCD plants. The electronics giant stated on August 30 that it had decided to provide up to 100 million won ($93,228) in treatment costs over ten years for former employees that contracted cancer within three years of ceasing work at its semiconductor and LCD factories. It will also provide 100 million won in compensation to the families of former employees that die while receiving treatment for cancer. “Although no direct link has been proven between the working environment in our semiconductor plants and the contraction of cancer, we are providing treatment costs and compensation to former employees that contract cancer or die from it, for humanitarian reasons,” said Kwon Oh-hyun, president of Samsung‘s Device Solutions Business. In June, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled that Samsung must recognize the cancer cluster cases as industrial accidents, and give compensation to surviving family members. In July, a Samsung-commissioned study rejected a link between semiconductor plant workers’ degree of exposure to carcinogenic materials and the occurrence of leukemia, though the report was criticized for its lack of supporting data. Samsung Electronics will pay medical costs and compensation in cases of 14 different types of cancer: leukemia, lymphoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, epithelial cancer, lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma, nasal cavity and larynx cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer, brain tumors, bladder cancer, aplastic anemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. If former employees that meet these conditions apply for cancer treatment costs, Samsung will decide whether they are eligible for financial support, based on when and for how long they worked for the company and the nature of their illness. Some, however, claim that the plan will not be very effective, because of the strict conditions that must be met. First, those that left the company before 1999 are not eligible. Samsung Electronics has further stipulated that successful applicants must have worked for the company for at least one year, and must have been diagnosed with some kind of disorder while working at Samsung. The first diagnosis of cancer, moreover, must come no later than three years after the day on which the employee left the company.Since this condition cites not the day upon which the disease was contracted but the day upon which it was diagnosed, even those diagnosed when their cancer is in its terminal stages will be ineligible for treatment costs and compensation if the day of diagnosis falls beyond the three-year mark. Civic organizations that have constantly drawn attention to cases of leukemia among workers in semiconductor plants warn of the possibility that the new system may be abused. “It may be abused as a means of concealing the problem by asking people to keep quiet in exchange for medical cost payment,” said Gong Yu Jeong-ok, an activist with Supporters for the Health and Rights of People in Semiconductor industry (SHARPS). “The Ministry of Employment and Labor must keep a close eye on the system to ensure that it is not misused as a way of concealing industrial accidents.” Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
Modified on : Aug.31,2011 13:41 KST
