YoungSun Kim
(Researcher, Center for Working Hours)
May 31th 2020

Event: Civil servants’ Karoshi

Whenever there is a disaster, there is the death caused by Karosi among the civil servants. While the K-quarantine model is presented as an international standard, there have been two consecutive deaths at the end of February and early March among  a civil servant A and another civil servant B who had to work even during the weekend for an emergent situation due to COVID-19. A civil servant C who fainted after working for 20 days continuously without a break due to the emergency work and then came back to work and he was exposed to the Karoshi risk, too. A civil servant D who was managing the COVID-19 related work also died from overwork at the end of April.   

If we look back to the past, in a disastrous period such as heatwave due to climate change there were death cases. When there were animal infectious diseases which happen almost every year, civil servants’ Karoshi repeated. At the end of March last year, a veterinarian working for the government in Paju city who had to work at the office for delivering quarantine services  without a  break due to African swine fever and he died from overwork. Such cases show how serious civil servants’ are exposed to the danger of overwork from emergency work during the disastrous period.

Are workers and human rights not compatible with disaster?

Disaster means the unstable state  when everything seems lost. The Origin of the word ‘disaster’ means an unknown situation that happens when a planet strays from the orbit. An unprecedented case threatens safety and at the same time a lot of problems that lurk in a society at once. It also acts as an opportunity where vulnerability of the society can be revealed.  The same opportunity is also something that shows how workers are treated.

In such disastrous situations being described as forefront, scorched earth, mess, turbulence, great fear, rampancy, an unprecedented event, wartime situation, military operations, in the gunfire, general mobilization, COVID-19 warriors, frontline heroes, rules of rights collapse easily.

When coping with a disaster, plans for workers including allocated break time, a room to rest or lodgings are hard to find. When wearing anti-contamination suits, (workers have) more fatigue and stress than usual. If you wear anti-contamination suits you will say you are dripping with sweat even in the middle of winter. For such a reason taking a rest per one or two hours is mandatory, but the reality is not. Workers say that they do not know when to rest or what the policy or protocol regarding their allowed break hours. Working during the weekend continues, but workers cannot expect to take a day off during their work schedule. Disasters underestimate the rights of workers.

Dispositif: the office regulations and volunteer’s ideology

Let’s look at the disposition that makes the Karoshi. First, there is the possibility that civil servants can be exposed to the danger of overwork due to increased office regulations. Their working time can be extended or changed at any time because of ‘the office regulations’(such clauses as emergency work and working time changes) that can call workers for work for an emergency situation. Working monthly 150~200 hours of overwork is very common. The Kinds of emergency work, dates of ordering emergency work, and reason for ordering emergency work are very specifically laid out , but limited conditions to be opted out for emergency work are hard to find. Such office regulations that leave emergency work as it is like ‘working for the weekend (not providing alternating holidays)’ is one of the reasons that make the Karoshi of civil servants constantly. There should be a measure that when they  ‘open’ emergency work and they ‘close’ or temporarily stop carrying out’ other duties.

Second, volunteer’s ideology such as dedication, volunteering, protection, sense of duty, responsibility justify overtime emergency work. Volunteer’s ideology makes it difficult to state about the danger of overwork especially in a disastrous situation. Civil servants are put in a difficult position during the disastrous period that they find hard to advocate for their own safety rights, health rights and time rights. It is common that civil servants have a sense of duty as volunteers for citizens, emergency workers but it is not the given condition where their basic labor rights such as  break time, minimum resting time, replaced day off, limits on overwork can be violated. 

Whenever there is a civil servant’s Karoshi for a disaster, it is portrayed as dedication and sacrifice. This shows how the volunteer's ideology is  being  misused in the disastrous situation. The problem is that the ‘overwork’ issue that the main causes death is concealed when a sense of duty, dedication, and sacrifice are focused. Volunteer’s ideology becomes another reason that causes civil servants’ Karoshi repeatedly. 

Exceptional? Structural?

You can think that civil servants’ Karoshi is an exceptional case that occurs in a disastrous situation. Even though it is caused by emergency work, we should not underestimate such phenomena because it implies the danger of overwork has been accumulated over a period of time. Number of civil servants in Korea is the lowest compared to other OECD countries. This is a representative indication that proves a small number of workforce. There are even cases of over 150 hours of overwork per month. This shows the overwork condition has become chronic. Field civil servants at local governments have even worse conditions. It means that civil servants’ Karoshi is not simply an exceptional case during a disaster. It is a systemic problem by which the danger of overwork that accumulated was triggered in a disaster. 

A disaster of virus infectious disease occurs repeatedly by changing its name as ‘novel’. It shows higher frequency and the cycle is getting shorter. There are also many different kinds of disaster  such as getting various from cosmic radio waves and crashes of universe objects and collisions. Like repeated disasters, the problems in civil servants’ Karoshi should not be ignored.

A rule based on workers and human rights has to be made

Should civil servants’ Karoshi due to emergency work be repeated? This link has to be cut. This work needs to be resolved in accordance with the principle based on workers and human rights. That is, the approach principle that includes stipulating safety rights, health rights and rights. 

Ways to approach the overwork under the name of emergency can cause another problem. The way they mobilize workers’ sacrifice by calling OOO warriors, OOO heroes or by presenting a sense of professionalism will just lay another social conflict, but it is not an appropriate way  for dealing with a disaster. Coming up with protecting workers and human rights is a first step, and at the same time the best quarantine strategy to guarantee everyone’s safety.