SHARPS has scored yet another legal win as a higher court in Seoul has upheld a lower-court declaration that a former Samsung employee’s disease was occupationally caused.
On July 25, 2017, the higher court threw out an appeal by the KCOMWEL and upheld a lower-court order for the agency to pay workers comp benefits to Kim Mi-seon, a 37 year-old, former LCD assembler of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. who has fallen victim to multiple sclerosis
Two Firsts
Kim’s long fight for workers comp had two firsts. She was the first multiple sclerosis victim to win an administrative court ruling in favor of her case for workers comp. In Feb. 2017, the administrative court ruled that her condition was due to a combination of overwork and chemical exposure at Samsung’s LCD unit, which was spun off into a separate entity in 2012. It was the first appeals victory for electronics workers suffering multiple sclerosis, the disease so rare that it affects only 3.5 in every 100,000 Koreans.
No Precedent
In July 2015, Samsung actually used the rarity of the disease and the lack of a judicial or administrative precedent to justify the lowest payout for multiple sclerosis under an already-problematic and divisive compensation scheme for the victims of its occupational disease cluster. Also, citing the lack of medically proven data or a legal precedent, the scheme does not cover lung cancer and infertility.
Tragic Repeats
While her victory can be a gamechanger in ongoing legal proceedings and campaigns against Samsung, the 37 years old’s post-Samsung life was a repeat of many tragedies wrought upon Samsung cluster victims.
Kim was only 17 in June 1997 when she landed a job at Samsung LCD as an operator. After three years of soldering tabs onto LCD modules and panels, in March 2000, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In June 2000, she resigned as her condition deteriorated.
Over the 17 years since her departure from Samsung, sclerosis steadily sank her physically and financially. She is now legally blind in dire financial need that at least once led to SHARPS making an urgent appeal for financial donations for her.
SHARPS’s Sit-in Continues
Since Oct. 7, 2015, SHARPS and its supporters have been staging a sit-in at Samsung D’light, the company’s so-called global exhibition space in south Seoul, calling for the world’s largest technology company to: 1) compensate all victims of occupational disease transparently and sufficiently; and 2) make a sincere and full apology.
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