Death of London Bagel Museum worker reignites debate over mandatory work-hour records

London Bagel Museum in Jongno District, Seoul, bustles with visitors in January 2024. Korea Times file

The suspected overwork death of a 26-year-old employee at the popular bakery chain London Bagel Museum has reignited a fierce debate in Korea over whether employers should be required to track work hours.

At the heart of the controversy are questions about the employee’s actual working hours. The 26-year-old, who had been stationed at the company’s Incheon branch, was found dead in the staff dormitory in July, a day after finishing a late shift.

The bereaved family alleges he had been pushed to work nearly 80 hours a week, often skipping meals and getting only a few hours of sleep.

The company denied the claim, insisting his schedule did not approach 80 hours. It argued that as it operates within fixed business hours, prolonged overtime is unlikely to occur on a regular basis.

The labor ministry began an inspection of London Bagel Museum and its Incheon branch on Oct. 29.

The government is pushing ahead with plans to mandate work-hour recording, and the labor minister has stressed the need to implement the requirement without delay.

“It makes no sense that a country with advanced IT capabilities still cannot mandate the recording of working hours,” Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said Thursday during a meeting with the press.

“In the case of London Bagel Museum, we were able to trace the employee’s movements showing nearly 80 hours of work,” he added, emphasizing that mandatory work-hour tracking should be implemented at the earliest possible time.

Under the current labor law, employers are not required to track or record employees’ actual working hours.

However, calls to make such record-keeping mandatory have been raised for years.

During the Moon Jae-in administration, the push to mandate work-hour tracking was included in the national policy agenda. Although the government pledged to introduce the requirement, the plan stalled and was never fully implemented.

The issue resurfaced under President Lee Jae Myung. He pledged to impose mandatory recording of actual working hours, and the commitment was later reflected in the labor ministry’s briefing to the Presidential Commission for National Agenda Planning.

The Korean Democratic Labor Party holds a press conference in front of the London Bagel Museum’s Anguk branch in Jongno District, Seoul, Oct. 30. Yonhap

Experts emphasized that logging workers’ start and end times can be a basic safeguard against overwork.

“At the very least, we need a system that records when employees start and end their shifts,” said Kim Sung-hee, director of the Workers’ Institute of Industry and Labor Policy and a professor of labor studies at Korea University.

“If it is not mandatory, companies can leave records blank or manipulate them at will, resulting in gaps and omissions.”

There are concerns that pushback from small businesses could complicate efforts to mandate time tracking. Yet the cost of implementing such systems is no longer a major barrier, as tracking devices have become widely available and affordable.

At the same time, critics warn that any mandate should not evolve into a form of electronic surveillance that tracks every movement of workers.

“Excessive monitoring systems can raise serious human rights and labor rights issues,” Kim said. “Even if logging worker hours becomes mandatory, safeguards must be in place to ensure it does not lead to digital surveillance.”

London Bagel Museum said that it manages employees’ working hours through a digital system and shift schedule. The company acknowledged limits in monitoring all branches, noting that the current system relies on self-reporting.

In response, it said it would accelerate plans to adopt a new time management system capable of real-time data synchronization and preventing missed entries.