Costco Korea fined $22,565 for safety violations in connection to worker's death
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the family of Kim Dong-ho, a Costco Wholesale Korea employee who died in June while organizing shopping carts during hot weather at Costco's Hanam branch, hold a press conference at the Korea Workers Compensation & Welfare Service's office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Aug. 22, to demand that the franchise recognize his death as an industrial accident resulting from making him work in conditions of extreme heat. Newsis
Costco Wholesale Korea Country Manager Cho Min-soo / Newsis
By Baek Byung-yeul
Costco Whole Sale Korea was fined 30 million won ($22,565) by the Ministry of Employment and Labor for delaying reporting the death of an employee who died while organizing shopping carts during a heat wave in June, according to the ministry, Wednesday.
The ministry said it recently fined Costco Wholesale Korea for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
On June 19, Kim Dong-ho, an employee at the U.S. retail franchise's Hanam branch, collapsed and died while managing shopping carts in the store's parking lot in hot weather, but its Korean unit didn't report the incident to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the occupational safety authority, until the next day.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers are required to report serious accidents in the workplace without delay.
The ministry also found that the employer had not implemented safety and health training when switching the deceased worker's job from the cash register to the parking lot, and imposed an additional fine of 5 million won on the company.
Costco's store in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province / Captured from Costco Wholesale Korea's webpage
In addition to the fines, the ministry said it is also investigating whether Costco Wholesale Korea violated the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.
The act, which has been in effect since January 2022, states that if a fatal accident occurs at a workplace due to the failure of business owners or managers to fulfill their obligations to ensure safety and health, they can be imprisoned for at least one year or fined up to 1 billion won.
On June 19, the employee was moving carts at the store's parking lot when he collapsed at around 7 p.m. He was moved to a nearby hospital for resuscitation but died at 9:18 p.m.
His death certificate stated that he died of a pulmonary embolism caused by excessive dehydration due to the high temperature, and the medical exam he underwent before being assigned to the parking lot did not reveal any illnesses.
Costco Wholesale Korea refrained from issuing an official statement after the employee's death until his bereaved family made several requests to Costco's U.S. headquarters to investigate the death and take action. Forty-five days after Kim's death, the Korean unit responded with a message of "sincere condolences.”