'PC Off System' Yet Bank Employee Dies from Overwork... Court Rules 'Work-related Accident'

[Financial News] Regarding the 38-year-old bank employee who died from overwork at a bank implementing the 'Work PC Off System' to reduce overtime, the court recognized it as a work-related accident.
According to the legal community on the 4th, the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 7 (Presiding Judge Lee Ju-young) ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the parents of bank employee A against the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service to cancel the decision not to pay survivor benefits and funeral expenses.
A joined Bank B in 2012 and was in charge of corporate credit review work from January 2023. On March 26 of the same year, he was found dead in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle after visiting a practice range for golf practice around 2 PM. A, who was 38 years old at the time, died of acute myocardial infarction. Acute myocardial infarction is a disease caused by blocked blood vessels, with long working hours being one of the major risk factors.
A's parents claimed that the death was a work-related accident due to overwork and stress and applied for survivor benefits and funeral expenses, but the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service decided not to pay in January 2024, stating that there was no significant causal relationship between work and death. The bereaved family then filed a lawsuit.
The court sided with the bereaved family. The court stated, "Chronic overwork or work-related stress contributed to the onset of acute myocardial infarction or worsened it beyond the natural course, resulting in the deceased's death," and "a significant causal relationship between the deceased's death and work can be recognized."
The service calculated the average weekly working hours for the 12 weeks before death as 46 hours and 24 minutes based on A's work PC log records. At that time, the bank did not have a system to verify employee entry times, and the service calculated working hours based on the time the work PC was turned off.
However, the court stated, "The work PC can only be used from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM on weekdays, and outside of those hours, extended use approval is required," and judged that due to the PC Off System, which limits PC use to match work end times, working hours were not properly reflected.
The court also mentioned that extended use approval is cumbersome and limited to 12 hours per week, noting that employees might work through external network PCs or personal laptops, stating, "It cannot be concluded that A only worked during the work PC usage time."
The nature of A's work was also judged to have significantly impacted stress. In fact, he had disapproved five credit reviews just before his death, and considering the testimonies of surrounding colleagues, the court judged that "he would have experienced a lot of mental stress in the process of notifying the branch of the credit disapproval."  


scottchoi15@fnnews.com Choi Eun-sol Reporter