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Video Description

Type: KIHASA Infographics

Topic: Is Your Workplace All Right?: Worker Health Inequality

Script

Economic inequality, gender inequality, disability inequality, and local inequality.

Having grown rapidly for decades, Korean society is confronted with various forms of inequality. In particular, inequalities in workplaces, where we earn a living, have become a pressing concern, as they lead to health disparities among workers. We have seen as we navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic that the health risks we face and the level of protection we receive in the workplace vary depending on what we do at work and where we work. In times like these, when the health of others can impact my own health, as seen in the case of COVID-19, should we just let occupational health inequality, which is not solely someone else’s concern but also our own, go unaddressed?

Worker health inequality refers to disparities in health outcomes among workers that arise from their specific circumstances. The most representative of such health disparities are those due to employment type and employer size. Shall we first look at health inequalities due to employment type?

In Korea, workers can be broadly classified into two categories: stable and unstable employment, commonly known as regular and irregular employment, depending on the stability of their jobs. Which category workers belong to determines their working conditions, including wages, working hours, and the working environment, and thus leads to health inequalities among them. Research indicates that workers in unstable employment have poorer health and engage in unhealthier behaviors compared to those in regular employment. Additionally, the more precarious the employment of workers, the higher the prevalence of their exposure to occupational health hazards and the fewer the resources available to protect them and address such hazards. Also, the more precarious the employment status of workers, as in the case of irregular and subcontracted workers, the poorer the working and workplace conditions, and the less there is the safeguarding and overseeing required in the workplace for their safety and health.

Let’s now turn to worker health inequality due to employer size.

As of 2019, 63.8 percent of workers in Korea were employed by small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Yet the health of these workers has been left outside the protection of the law. This is because Korea’s labor rights protection has evolved predominantly around larger corporations. Consequently, small businesses have remained excluded from or have been pushed back in priority in the application of labor rights protection and, in many cases, have been exempted from being subject to various occupational health and safety regulations. Studies show that as the size of the workplace decreases, the rate of workplace accidents increases and the workers’ subjective health levels notably decrease. There are differences due to the size of the employer, as with the employment type, not only in health outcomes but also in exposure to health hazards and response resources.

So what are the institutional factors that exacerbate these worker health inequalities?

First, there is the frail social safety net. Workers in Korea can be compensated for work-related accidents or illnesses by filing a claim with the Workers’ Compensation Insurance, but since it is up to the workers themselves to prove that their claim is work-related, there are significant time and paperwork costs incurred for workers. Consequently, workers in insecure employment encounter greater difficulty in filing claims, and those without statutory sick leave or sick pay are more likely to return to work before fully recovering from their illnesses.

The second factor is the lax legal systems and practices for occupational safety and health. There are numerous exemptions that exonerate employers from their responsibilities and obligations for workers’ safety and health, and the level of penalties for violations is rather low. Training in occupational safety and health was found to be superficial or its observance neglected, especially among subcontractors and small businesses. In fact, the reality is that subcontractors’ workers are effectively excluded from the prime contractor’s industrial safety and health discussions.

To redress inequalities in workers’ health, it is crucial to strengthen the responsibility of employers for industrial safety prevention activities and accidents at work, and provide more opportunities for workers in the field to participate in discussions concerning occupational safety and health risks.  It is also important to enhance the institutional guarantee of workers’ right to take rest when they are ill. Expanding the coverage of the Workers’ Compensation Insurance and introducing a sickness benefit to cover income loss during illness is also essential. Our goal is to progress towards a society where every individual has the right to “rest when sick” and “not feel sorry for being sick.” Workers are not disposable commodities. The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs is fully committed to creating a Korea where all workers can work happily.

People with People in Mind

The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs