Unregulated night work ruins workers' health

Michelle Jang(KILSH)

JUN 15 2024

中文    한국어    日本語

Human Rights Commission's recommendation are rejected by ministries

  As online consumption has increased rapidly since the COVID-19, overwork deaths and poor workplace environments (workplaces with insufficient or no heating and cooling facilities) of delivery and logistics workers have emerged as social problems. In relation to this, in October last year, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (hereinafter referred to as the Human Rights Commission) recommended the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Minister of Employment and Labor respectively to improve the treatment of workers at logistics centers. There were four that the Human Rights Commission recommended: ① to improve fire vulnerability, ② to improve workplace environment in preparation for heat waves and cold waves, ③ to establish night work regulations, and ④ to guarantee the right to rest. On June 3 this year, the responses of the relevant ministries finally were made public, and they stated that they did not accept three and partially accepted one recommendation.

  The Human Rights Commission recommended to revise the current building law regulations which relaxed or made exceptions for the installation of fire fighting facilities of a living logistics center (a living logistics center refers to 3 types of workplaces such as ① a logistics center where sellers store products and package and ship products according to consumer orders, ② a logistics workshop that collects and sorts products during the delivery process, and ③ the logistics center of an online general sales company, like Coupang , which directly operates both sales and delivery). However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport did not accept it, saying, “It is the local government to determine the purpose or use of the building, not us." In addition, when the Human Rights Commission recommended that as heat waves and cold waves become more severe every year, laws should be revised to install heating and cooling equipment in logistics centers, but the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport shifted the responsibility, saying, “This is an issue that should be handled by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which is competent by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.” And the Ministry of Employment and Labor responded to the recommendation to provide hourly breaks in case of heat waves and prepare an implementation plan for risk assessment for each workplace, saying, “In heat wave situations, the degree of health risk may vary depending on the work environment at the workplace, so it is difficult to uniformly regulate it by law to provide break times and install air conditioning equipment.”

  Regarding night work, the Ministry of Employment and Labor reiterated its position that “variables such as working conditions, environment, and individual health status may vary for each workplace, so it is difficult to uniformly apply limits and allowance requirements.” They are ignoring the reality that many of the deaths of logistics center workers from overwork occur at night. The only recommendation accepted was “to stipulate holidays in the current laws and regulations to prevent death from overwork and guarantee the right to rest for delivery workers,” and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, “We must stipulate holidays and the rights of rest in the standard contract mandated by the Living Logistics Industry Service Development Act.”

Night work is the second level of carcinogen

  Night work refers to working from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day. Along with long working hours, night work is the main cause of death from overwork. Night work destroys workers' 24-hour circadian rhythm, increases the incidence of cerebrovascular diseases, sleep disorders, and digestive system diseases, and worsens health. In 2019, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) designated night work as group 2A, the second level of carcinogen. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk is greatly increased if you work at night for more than 3 hours between midnight and 5 a.m., more than three times a week, or for more than 10 years. The International Labor Organization (ILO) convention specifies regular checkups and follow-up management for night workers(job change if unsuitable for night work, salary preservation, dismissal protection, etc.). Accordingly, many European countries have strict prior regulations on night work. France allows night work as an exception only for essential industries such as medical work, and requiring workers to work at night for more than three hours a day, twice a week, must go through an agreement between labor and management or approval from the Labor authority. In Finland, night work is possible only when there are three or more day and night shifts, and in the two shifts, workers can only work until 1 a.m. In the UK, night work hours do not exceed 8 hours per day, and Belgium and Norway also have regulations on the type of night work.   However, in South Korea, according to the current Labor Standards Act, except for pregnant women and minors, night work is allowed without restrictions as long as additional wages(night work allowance, paid by adding more than 50/100 of the normal wage) are paid.

Increasing the proportion of night workers with symptoms 

  According to an analysis of the report of workers’ health examinations conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2022, the prevalence of night workers in 2022 was 19.7%, an increase of about 5%p compared to 2018. Prevalence refers to the proportion of night workers who show signs of disease and require follow-up care(night workers with symptoms). It was confirmed that among night workers who received health examinations in 2022, the number of workers with symptoms was 233,022, a 42% increase from 163,957 in 2018. During the same period, the number of those who require follow-up care due to concerns of disease progression increased by 24% to 445,653. On the other hand, the number of night workers increased by 9% (about 100,000) from 1,085,856 to 1,183,883. The proportion of night workers with symtoms also increased by 4.7%p from 15% in 2018 to 19.7% in 2022. Compared to the increase rate of night workers who were subject to health examinations, the increase rate of those with symptoms and requiring follow-up care has increased significantly. Except 2020, when health examinations were not properly conducted due to the coronavirus, this trend has been commonly observed over the past five years (2018 to 2022). The health and social welfare service industry is leading the increase in the number of night workers of health examinations. In this industry, the number of night workers who received a health checkup in 2022 was 252,598, a 20% increase from 2018. The transportation industry also increased by 19.5% to 122,480. Traditionally, the industry with the most night work is manufacturing, but the number of manufacturing night workers who received health examinations in 2022 was 496,485, a decrease of 246 compared to 2018. What is noteworthy is that the number of night workers with symptoms increased the most in manufacturing, where the number of night workers subject to health examinations has not increased significantly. The number of night workers  with symptoms in the manufacturing industry increased by 42% (23,235 people) to 78,393 four years later, from 55,158 in 2018. The number of night workers with symptoms in the health and social welfare services industry, which has significantly increased the number of night workers subject to health checkups, also increased by 70% (16,399 people) from four years ago to 39,721. This seems to reflect the increasing proportion of older workers in industries such as manufacturing and health and social welfare services, and the workplace situation in which follow-up care after health examinations is not properly implemented.

We need night work regulations to protect workers

  If night work is unavoidable due to social necessity, there must be night work regulations to protect the health of workers. The regulations have already been included in the ILO 'Night Work Convention No. 171', which South Korea has not yet signed, and many European countries are actively regulating night work in accordance with it. In South Korea, civil society organizations proposed to create new provisions related to night work regulations in the Labor Standards Act such as restrictions on continuous night work, restrictions on the number of night work days per month, granting of rest and holidays to night workers, obligation to deploy appropriate or minimum number of workers during night work, and ban on one-person night work, but discussions in the political circles are still insufficient.

  However, the government is pursuing a policy of flexible working hours that encourages night work, and is trying to promote a reform regulation to manage overtime work on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual basis. In addition, recently in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling that when calculating overtime work hours per week, the remaining hours exceeding the legal working hours (40 hours per week) should be regarded as overtime work, the administrative interpretation was changed, allowing workers to work up to 21.5 hours a day except for break time. If the government's reform regulation is implemented, it is clear that the problem of death from overwork due to night work and long working hours will become more severe. The government must face the fact that unregulated night work and long working hours are already silently destroying the health of countless workers.