04-08-2025
Banker's death caused by stress from new duties: court
Court rules that man who died of heart attack was overworked, under extreme stress at the office
A South Korean court has ruled that the death of a bank employee was work-related, caused by excessive stress from his new assignment.
The Seoul Administrative Court ordered the state-run Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (K-Comwell) to pay full benefits to the bereaved family and reimburse them for funeral expenses, ruling in favor of the family, who filed a lawsuit last year.
The man, who was 38 years old when he died, had been working at a local bank since 2012 and was assigned to review corporate loans in January 2023. He reportedly was under extreme stress from his new duties, and was found dead inside his car at a golf resort in March that year.
The cause of death was a heart attack.
The parents of the deceased had requested survivor's benefits stipulated by the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, which are paid to surviving family members of workers who die due to causes related to their duties. But in January 2024, K-Comwell decided not to pay the benefits or funeral costs, saying there was not a strong enough link between the man's death and his duties.
However, in its ruling, the court said, "It should be regarded that overwork and work-related stress had contributed to or at least exacerbated the progression of the acute myocardial infarction, leading to his death ... (The deceased) had turned down requests for five corporate loans just before he died, and his colleague's testimony suggests that the process had inflicted severe stress."
K-Comwel denied that the deceased had worked excessively, pointing out that the computer he used at work showed that he had logged in for 46 hours a week on average in the 12 weeks leading up to his death. Legal working hours in Korea are 40 hours a week, with up to 12 hours of overtime per week.
But the court pointed out that employees of the bank had frequently used their personal computers for work outside the office, saying it was likely that the man's actual working hours during those 12 weeks had surpassed the 52 hours legally allowed.
Even if the deceased had underlying physical conditions, the court said work-related factors are likely to have accelerated the progression of his condition.
