Da-yeon Kim(KILSH)  

OCT 31 2021

Night shift, an inevitable choice to make a living

In a survey on perceptions of night shift and night services in South Korea conducted by a newspaper in 2020[1]  , nearly half (44.8%) of workers who actually work at night answered that they work at night because 'if they don't work at night, they can't make a living'. On the other hand, there are 73.5% of those who said that they had difficulties in their home and daily life due to night work such as health problems (57.4%), discord or disconnection in family relationships (12.6%), lack of leisure time (22.4%), and problems of disconnection from social relationships (7.7%). In a recent labor survey[2] conducted on workers of Coupang, a famous logistics company that is estimated to employ more than 40,000 workers, including daily workers, in South Korea, 82% of those who work at afternoon shift (from 4p.m or 6p.m. to 2a.m or 4 a.m. the next day) and late night shift (from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.) said that they chose night shift as 'economical reasons'. According to the Korean Labor Standards Act, if you work at night (between 10p.m. and 6a.m. the next day), you will receive 1.5 times of your normal wage. In particular, in the case of Coupang, it is very difficult to go to unlimited contracts or permanent contracts, and there are a lot of daily or short-term contract workers who are not guaranteed long-term employment. The employment is unstable, and the workers are forced to choose night shift even if they are overworked, as they only are paid at the minimum wage level, which is too low for the work that requires hard physical labor. All three cases of overwork deaths in this company over the past year were deaths of night workers. Including overwork deaths of delivery workers at the same company, 7 out of 8 who died during the period from March 2020 to March 2021 were night workers.

How to regulate night work in South Korea

There are almost no regulations on night work in South Korea. In Article 70 of the Labor Standards Act, 'Restriction on night work and holiday work', there is the only provision prohibiting pregnant women and minors under 18 from working at night or holidays, but after proving papers that the parties consented or made an explicit request, it is possible to do it with the approval of the Minister of Employment and Labor, so it is practically invalid. From a worker's point of view, he or she is forced to accept the conditions offered by the company in order to be hired. Considering the reality that 'consent' based on sheer spontaneity is impossible and it can be seen that there are only formal restrictions in effect. Other than that, there are the safety measures and rules for health management of shift workers suggested by the Occupational Safety and Health Agency, which only recommend that ‘it is good to reduce fixed or continuous night shift work, and refrain from night work for more than 3 consecutive days and fixed night shift work’.[3]

Although there are exceptions to the application, the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Act basically prohibit the manufacture, import, transfer, provision, and use of “substances recognized to cause occupational cancer and are particularly harmful to workers’ health”. Even though night work is not a chemical substance, it is classified in Group 2A carcinogens, and although it can cause cancer by disturbing the biological rhythm, it is not recognized as a form of labor that contains that much risk.

Need to regulate continuous night work

In a reality where the government is only concerned with the increase in the formal employment rate regardless of the job quality, night work is viewed by the government as an opportunity to expand jobs and as a means to enhance competitiveness and gain more profits for businesses.

In the absence of regulations for the physical and mental health of workers, because of low wages and precarious employment, workers are inevitably forced to work at night.

On September 16, the National Assembly Committee on SMEs and Startup business, Ministry of Trade and Industry began reviewing some amendments to the Distribution Industry Development Act. The amendment includes the content of permitting the early morning delivery business of large marts, where both offline store operation and online order product delivery are restricted by the current law at midnight (from midnight to 10 a.m.). An official from a large mart expressed his hopes, saying, "If we can implement the early morning delivery service based on offline stores, we will be able to reverse the food delivery market that gave the initiative to Coupang and others at once."[4] The retail industry is constantly lobbying for amendments to be proposed and passed.[5] If passed, the number of workers who will be engaged in night work will double.

Meanwhile, night work has recently been highlighted as a major issue in South Korea.

On October 12, during the National Assembly's environmental and labor committee's inspection of institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Rep. Kang Eun-mi announced that she would submit a bill to ban night work, which has a significant impact on deaths from overwork. In October of last year, the bereaved family of the late Deok-Jun Jang, who died in Coupang due to night work while working an average of 62 hours and 10 minutes a week, handling 470 kg of heavy goods a day before death, continued to demand legislation of measures to prevent the recurrence of overwork death by Coupang and the night labor regulation law. NGOs and researchers also continue to voice their arguments for the need to regulate night work. Although various factors such as the number of jobs and the total wage of workers are intertwined in regulating night work, the most important value is to enable people to enjoy life and a better quality of physical and mental life. A lot of thought must be put into solving the problems related to night work, but the overall structure should be changed with this value at the center.

[1] “To make a living… night shift that workers want more” 2020.11.30, a newspaper ‘Seoul Sinmun’ 

[2] A study on the work conditions and health of Coupang logistics workers (Coupang Logistics Research Team)

[3] Occupational Safety and Health Agency 2016-Education Media-1023 Shift Worker Health Management Plan

[4] “Even hypermarkets allow early morning delivery”…ruling parth’s deregulation plan has been released, 2021.06.22

[5] I don’t expect this kind of work…'Coupang-style late night work' without guidelines, 2021.09.29