South Korean court says studies understated Samsung workplace health hazards

A South Korean court said studies conducted to evaluate safety at Samsung chip factories failed to fully examine workplace health hazards, undermining the electronics giant’s efforts to distance itself from claims that its manufacturing plants caused fatal cancers.

The finding by the Seoul Administrative Court was part of a ruling in the case of a Samsung Electronics worker who died of leukaemia in 2009 at the age of 29.

A panel of three judges said on Friday that a “considerable causal relationship” existed between Kim Kyung-mi’s leukaemia and her five years of work at a Samsung memory chip factory, dipping wafers in chemicals.

The judges said Kim must have been exposed to more toxic chemicals than safety studies said existed at Samsung’s factories.

Samsung, one of the best known South Korean companies and a powerful force in the country’s economy, has cited studies that found no dangerous level of benzene, formaldehyde or other carcinogens to ease public concerns about workplace hazards.

But the studies did not evaluate exposure to chemicals during maintenance work, blackouts, gas leaks or other incidents when the level of toxic gas goes up sharply, the judges said. The court ordered the Korea Workers’ Compensations and Welfare Service, a government agency, to pay compensation to Kim’s family.

Claims for compensation for injuries and disease linked to the workplace are decided by the agency, which levies companies to fund its payouts. The agency had previously denied compensation to Kim’s family who appealed to the Seoul court.