VIRUS INFECTION RECOGNIZED AS INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT

[Anchor Lead]

Amid the worldwide resurgence of COVID-19, Korean people working overseas are exposed to the risk of infections. Contracting the virus was recognized as an industrial accident in one case involving an overseas Korean worker.

[Pkg]

Three Korean workers tested positive for the coronavirus on August 29 after returning from overseas. They worked at a foreign construction site and were confirmed to be infected while quarantining at a company dormitory. 79 Korean workers who returned from Iraq on July 24 tested positive for COVID-19. There are continued reports of infections involving Koreans returning from working overseas. For the first time, one such case was recognized as an industrial accident. An employee at a Korean company operating in the U.S. tested positive during the quarantine process at the airport upon arriving in Korea. After receiving medical treatment, the worker asked the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service to recognize the case as an industrial accident. The agency held deliberations and decided to recognize the case as an industrial accident, around a month after the application was made. It was an unusually quick decision, given that similar industrial accident decisions take more than five months.

[Soundbite] HAN KYUNG-E(KOREA WORKERS' COMPENSATION & WELFARE SERVICE) : "It is meaningful, as it is the first case to recognize a coronavirus infection as an industrial accident for a Korean employee working overseas."

Based on testimonies from the patient's coworkers and the results of an on-site investigation, the service decided the infection was work-related. Two other Korean workers from overseas asked the service to recognize their coronavirus infections as industrial accidents. They are waiting for the results. Some 70 infections have been recognized as industrial accidents both at home and abroad, including medical workers and call center employees. If workers contract the virus while at work, they can submit applications for industrial accidents without their employers' verification.