Industrial Disaster Victim Increased 30 Percent

It has been revealed that during the first half of this year, 37,552 workers have been compensated as industrial disaster victims. It is an increase of 30.7 percent over the same period of last year.

According to the state of the industrial disaster victim released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor (ML), during the first half, the occurrence rate of the industrial disaster increased by 8.57 percent to 0.38 percent over the same period of last year (0.35 percent). The number of patients injured on business has also increased by 14.29 percent from last year`s 2.38 to 2.72 persons per 10,000 workers.

Accordingly, the financial loss (compensation and absentee loss) due to the industrial disaster increased by 22.4 percent to 4.1896 trillion won over the same period of last year (3.4240 trillion won).

It is due to the upsurge of compensation in small business as the industrial insurance coverage range has been expanded to less-than-5- workers workplaces. It has been ascertained that 5,131 victims, 58 percent, among the increased number of 8,814 victims over last year, were working at the small-sized workplaces with less-than-5-workers.

A representative at the ML said, ``The cause of the increase in industrial disaster is the reduction of investment and system in the field of the safety management during the enterprise reconstruction process, along with the expansion in the industrial disaster coverage range.``

In the meantime, since the number of workers who have been compensated for the pain in the shoulder, neck, and arm occurred due to the repeated simple action operating computers, increased by 122.7 percent, in case of the back pain by 61.6 percent, comparing to the number of last year. It was pointed out that education on a right working posture is urgently needed.

It has been calculated that on Fridays, the most number (16.41 percent) of the industrial disaster took place following Mondays (15.99 percent), and Wednesdays (15.82 percent).

Kim Joon-Seok kjs359@donga.com