Mandating patients to clean hospital violates human rights: court

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By Jun Ji-hye

A local hospital infringed on patients' rights to receive treatment when it ordered patients recovering from alcoholism to clean the facilities, although the hospital claimed such an order was for rehabilitation purposes, according to a court.

According to legal sources, Monday, the Seoul Administrative Court handed down the ruling against the four plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit, Dec. 15, asking the court to revoke a decision made by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) in 2020.

In May 2020, one of the inpatients of the hospital filed a complaint with the NHRCK, accusing the hospital of having ordered the inpatients to clean the facilities and prohibited them from having mobile phones.

In August of that year, the NHRCK concluded that the hospital had violated their right to good medical care, advising it to stop imposing labor on them and allow them to have mobile phones.

This decision led the four hospital officials to file their lawsuit.

During the trial, one of the plaintiffs claimed, “The cleaning order was for rehabilitation purposes and carried out with the agreement of the inpatients. We also paid the patients 1.7 times more than the country's minimum wage.”

The court rejected this argument, saying that ordering inpatients to clean the facilities is a violation of their rights in terms of human dignity and receiving treatment.

“There is no objective evidence showing that cleaning orders were given by a psychiatrist,” the court said in its ruling. “Such an order was not for rehabilitation purposes. It was just to satisfy the hospital's need for such labor.”

This case will move to a higher court as the plaintiffs have lodged an appeal.