Costco Korea head criticized for defaming worker who died of heatstroke

Costco Wholesale Korea Country Manager Cho Min-soo / Newsis

By Park Jae-hyuk

Costco Wholesale Korea Country Manager Cho Min-soo has come under criticism for allegedly defaming the company's late 29-year-old employee, Kim Dong-ho, who died in June after collapsing in a sweltering parking lot of the U.S. warehouse club's Hanam branch in Gyeonggi Province.

Kim's father told media recently that Cho and some employees from the Costco Korea headquarters said at his son's funeral parlor that the deceased must have concealed his chronic disease.

The father regarded their remarks as proof of the company's attempt to avoid taking responsibility in accordance with the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which can send a company's chief manager to prison if a serious worksite accident occurs where the company has not taken sufficient safety precautions.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor is investigating the case.

According to the bereaved family and the labor union, Kim walked up to 26 kilometers a day, to move 200 shopping carts per hour to the store's entrance from its parking lot in significant heat.

The medical certificate of Kim's death also showed that he died from a pulmonary embolism caused by excessive dehydration as a result of intense heat. In addition, there was no disease found during his medical checkup, which he had before being deployed to the parking lot.

“The management should take responsibility for the accident, compensate the bereaved family and improve the working conditions by signing a collective agreement with the union,” a Costco Korea union member told Rep. Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea when he visited the Hanam branch's parking lot on July 11.

Rep. Lee Jae-myung, front row center, chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, looks around the parking lot of Costco Wholesale Korea's Hanam branch in Gyeonggi Province, July 11. Joint Press Corps

Costco, however, has yet to make an apology, remaining silent on this issue.

The company hired Korea's largest law firm, Kim & Chang, to represent it in the labor ministry's investigation.

Some of the deceased worker's colleagues reportedly complained about difficulties in testifying about the company's poor labor conditions during the labor ministry's investigation, as they were forced to be accompanied by the law firm's lawyers during the investigation.

In protest against the U.S. firm's stance, the labor union plans to hold a rally in front of its local subsidiary's main branch in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday.