By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

A court ruled Tuesday that an employer should compensate for the death of a female non-regular worker caused by stress from job insecurity.

The ruling was given in favor of the family of the worker, who, doctors concluded, died of a severe case of stress from not knowing when she might be laid off. The lawsuit was filed by a women identified by the last name Yoon, the mother of the victim.

Judge Seo Tae-hwan of the Seoul Administrative Court said in the ruling, “It’s apparent that the deceased was under extreme stress over her job insecurity for five years during which she was a non-permanent worker at Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO).” KEPCO is the state-run power monopoly.

“The stress frequently made her stay up all night, leading to her becoming epileptic. And the condition led to multiple organ failure, which was her cause of death,” the judge said.

The victim worked for KEPCO from 2001 through 2007 as a contract worker whose job was to get readings on power supply systems in South Jeolla Province.

She was cited as a model employee and came close to getting on the regular payroll. But she failed an interview and her request for a regular job was turned down.

Hitting her especially hard was a rumor in the company that many non-permanent workers would be laid off. The worker suffered a great deal at that time, her mother said.

Following her death, her family asked the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service to compensate them for her death, but it refused to do so, saying, “The death and stress are medically unrelated.”

pss@koreatimes.co.kr