Victims at E-Mart still in limbo

Bereaved families, retailer at odds over compensation

By Na Jeong-ju

The bereaved families of four people killed on July 2 while working in the basement machinery room of E-Mart’s Tanhyeon branch in Gyeonggi Province in what appears to be an industrial accident haven’t been able to bury their loved ones for more than two weeks.

With the National Forensic Service still looking into the exact cause of their deaths, the families are urging E-Mart to share responsibility, but the retail giant says it has to wait for the results of the autopsies.

The case has drawn public attention here as one of the four dead workers, Hwang Seung-won, a 22-year-old college student from a poor family, was there to earn money to pay for his tuition. Civic groups and student associations have held protests over the past weeks to demand a tuition cut, and this is now being discussed by political parties.

“We want a quick resolution of this case to a have funeral for my nephew and bury him peacefully in our hearts,” Hwang’s uncle, Chung Ung-ho, said Monday beside a memorial altar set up at the funeral hall of Dongguk University Hospital in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.

“It’s heartbreaking that his body is still in the mortuary although more than two weeks have passed. All we want is to lay him to rest in peace as quickly as possible.”

Hwang and three others — Park Ki-soon, 58, Nam Se-hyun, 37, and Bang Hong-geun, 33 — were found collapsed in the machinery room in the early morning of July 2 by an E-Mart staffer. They were taken to hospital immediately, but all died, according to police.

They were inspecting large refrigerators, which are about 10 times bigger than those used in households, for the outlet’s cooling system and police suspect they were suffocated by toxic gases.

What makes the issue complicated is that they were not E-Mart’s employees.

The Korean unit of Trane, a U.S. multinational firm manufacturing ventilating and air conditioning systems, was under contract with E-Mart to fix the refrigeration system at the Tanhyeon branch as noise was coming from a new unit installed in June.

Trane Korea then subcontracted part of the work to a small maintenance firm to which Hwang, Park and Nam belonged. Bang, a Trane Korea employee, was working with them as a team and there were no E-Mart staff present when the tragedy occurred.

E-Mart is facing questions as to whether it had taken any safety measures for the team. The retailer said they had been working in the basement for days and no sign of toxic gases was reported. Police said the workers were not wearing masks.

“We are not avoiding responsibility for their deaths. We just want to know the exact cause of the tragedy first,” an E-Mart spokesman said, asking not to be named. “We’ve offered our deep condolences to the bereaved families and will fully cooperate to resolve the case.”

The angry families, however, claim that E-Mart has an attitude problem.

“Three senior staffers of E-Mart visited here once to lay a wreath, but the firm has since then refused to listen to our calls for an early resolution. They are just waiting for the results of the investigation,” Chung said.

“We want to sit at the same table with Trane Korea and E-Mart to resolve this case quickly and have funerals. But E-Mart has reacted negatively to such an offer.”

As the case drags on, the costs of preserving the dead bodies and using the hospital’s funeral hall have surged to some 60 million won ($58,000). A Trane Korea executive verbally promised that the firm would cover the full cost of the funerals, according to Chung.

On Sunday, the families and student groups held a press conference in front of the E-Mart outlet in Tanhyeon. After the rally, they attempted to enter the store to deliver a letter of protest, but were blocked by security guards hired by the firm.

The families also held another press conference at the National Assembly Tuesday to call for more social attention to the case and “sincerity” by E-Mart to address the tragedy quickly.