HAZARDOUS WORKING CONDITIONS

[Anchor Lead]

A total of four mailmen, including the one in Dangjin Post Office on Wednesday, have died from overwork in the past two months. Post workers are known to work in notoriously hard conditions, up to a point where their health is at risk. We bring you the details.

[Pkg]

Mailman Kim Won-rae is in charge of a densely populated area in Seoul's Yangcheon-gu District. He climbs up and down the stairs ceaselessly to deliver packages.

[Soundbite] "I walk up two steps at a time."

Quite often, he has to skip meals to finish his load in time.

[Soundbite] KIM WON-RAE(YANGCHEON POST OFFICE MAILMAN) : "I have lunch whenever I finish work. I deliver on average more than 1,000 pieces of mail and packages per day."

On average, postal deliverers work about 12 hours a day. The 52-hour-workweek rule rarely applies to them.

[Soundbite] KIM WON-RAE(YANGCHEON POST OFFICE MAILMAN) : "Weekly overtime should not exceed 12 hours, but we're not allowed to mark our overtime even if we worked longer than that, because of the penalty. We are forced to lie about our hours."

A mailman in Dangjin Post Office passed away on Wednesday, that brings the total number of postmen who died in the past 2 months to 4. Since 2010, around 80 mailmen have died from brain and cardiovascular diseases.

[Soundbite] CHOI SEUNG-MUK(PRES., KOREAN POSTMAN WORKER'S UNION) : "Many workers feel they're next. They also feel obligated to keep new mailmen from working under such deadly conditions."

Last year, Korea Post promised to recruit 2,000 more mail deliverers and implement the five-day workweek system.

[Soundbite] (KOREA POST OFFICIAL) : "We requested budget increase last year, but the National Assembly didn't pass it. Also, we suffered big deficits last year and this year, so it's hard to hire more mail deliverers."

Unless they come up with fundamental solutions, the first-ever post workers' strike scheduled for next month will be held, inevitably resulting in serious disruptions in logistics and mail service.