By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

A high court granted workplace accident compensation to a Chinese illegal worker for the first time, overruling a lower court's ruling that rejected the crippled worker's request for medical fee coverage.

Busan High Court Monday ordered the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service to compensate Zhang Shuai, 22, who became disabled after he accidentally fell from a building in May 2006 during an attempt to escape from a raid by immigration police. The fall left him with brain damage and a paralyzed left arm and leg.

The court ruling stated: ``His escape attempt was to avoid many disadvantages that he would receive after the inspection but it is also true that his employers forced him to escape so as to continue their operations because they were not able to find local workers despite repeated recruitment advertisements. Therefore, the escape was part of his duties at work.''

Following the accident, his family applied for industrial accident compensation from the compensation service with help from Gyungnam Migrant Workers' Counsel Office. But it refused their request. In response, they filed a lawsuit against the service with a provincial court. But the court also dismissed the petition, saying ``his escape is nothing to do with his duties at work.''

Zhang arrived in Korea on a student visa in March 2005 and took language courses at a university in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. But he began working at an electronics firm in a nearby city from February 2006.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr