Banolim joined the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and Lawyers for a Democratic Society at a press conference last Thursday in front of Seoul Administrative Court, announcing that a lawsuit had been filed to reverse the commission’s decision to hold back from disclosing the contents of the report. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Following the Central Administrative Judgement Commission’s decision last July not to publicly disclose most portions of the Working Environment Assessment Report submitted by Samsung, victims of occupational hazards at Samsung have filed an administrative lawsuit.
Banolim, an advocacy group pushing for the health and human rights of semiconductor workers joined the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and Lawyers for a Democratic Society at a press conference last Thursday in front of Seoul Administrative Court, announcing that a lawsuit had been filed to reverse the commission’s decision to hold back from disclosing the contents of the report.
They accused Samsung of “covering up cases of occupational hazards that took place in the company over the past 10 years, without making any effort to fundamentally resolve the problems in the work environment,” adding that “more workers have been exposed to such hazardous conditions ever since, and more people are falling victim.”
They also said that “the report is an objective document that we need to prove that the victims have indeed suffered from occupational hazards, and it needs to be disclosed to the public to make Samsung a safe place to work at.” However, the commission, they said, “did not listen to our needs.”
The commission’s decision was based on the logic that the report contains national core technology, so it should be kept confidential.
However, Banolim and others said that the report “is a document designed to assess the hazardous environment of a workplace, not a blueprint for a manufacturing technology,” adding that “no one can make a semiconductor out of a work environment assessment report.”
Banolim and others said that “documentation on safety in the work environment should be disclosed to prevent any more harm to workers’ health,” emphasizing that “no technology can outweigh human life. Our right to access the assessment report should be guaranteed.”
The Central Administrative Judgement Commission decided on September 27 not to disclose the report’s portion on hazardous factors in each stages of manufacturing, chemical usage in each manufacturing stage, and the location of hazardous conditions in various work environments.
They accused Samsung of “covering up cases of occupational hazards that took place in the company over the past 10 years, without making any effort to fundamentally resolve the problems in the work environment,” adding that “more workers have been exposed to such hazardous conditions ever since, and more people are falling victim.” (Image courtesy of Samsung Elecs)
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
