One other loss of life of a shipper reveals the merciless actuality of the forwarding business in Korea, defying life to ship items to prospects as shortly as potential.
In current days, Korean public opinion has been stirred up by the loss of life of a 42-year-old supply employee who died after being run over by a truck. Beforehand, as a result of Covid-19 epidemic making the enterprise state of affairs troublesome, this individual solely began to work as a shipper from March this 12 months.
In response to police investigation, at the moment, the 42-year-old shipper stopped at a purple gentle in entrance of the truck. As a result of the motorbike in entrance was parked in a blind spot, the truck driver could not see it and pressed the fuel earlier than the sunshine turned inexperienced, resulting in a tragic accident. The person was dragged 20m and died on the spot. Earlier than the unlucky loss of life of this individual, the Korea Federation of Supply Employees requested the supply service firm to confess this was a labor accident and supply sufficient compensation.
Supply employees arrived on the scene to pay their respects to the deceased.
It’s value mentioning, that is simply one of many unlucky deaths of shippers in Korea. As a result of the job requires velocity, they must danger their lives to work too exhausting to loss of life, or danger disobeying site visitors legal guidelines to get the job performed, beneath the strain of a tradition that urges to obtain items shortly. as potential of consumers within the land of kimchi.
The brutal actuality of shipper work in Korea
In mid-March 2020, a supply man for Coupang, South Korea’s largest e-commerce firm, was discovered useless within the space between the 4th and fifth flooring of the residence constructing, the place he went to ship the products. a bundle.
The supply employee was later recognized as Kim, in his 40s, and had solely been doing this job for a couple of month. Kim’s explanation for loss of life was decided to be coronary heart illness. Then, Ha Woong, 34, Kim’s colleague in Coupang, stood as much as launch a marketing campaign to ask the corporate to extend wages and scale back working hours for supply employees.
“I feel he died from overwork and strain to ship the merchandise as shortly as potential. It was the poor working situations of the corporate that pushed him to his loss of life. I do know this. Both method will occur” – Ha Woong shared.
Koreans usually joke and seek advice from their nation because the “supply nation”, and the individuals the “supply man” or the “racing supply man”. Often, individuals can get the meal they ordered for no less than eight USD (greater than 230,000 VND) in lower than 1 hour with none extra charges. Coupang’s “Rocket Wow” supply service guarantees prospects same-day supply, and in the event that they wish to return them, they only must put them outdoors their door and somebody will decide them up.
“We obtain every part as if we had been VIP visitors. As a result of all gadgets are delivered shortly and at a low value, I feel that is why we wish to order on-line.” – Andrew Eungi Kim, professor of sociology at Korea College, expressed his opinion with regards to specific supply companies, resembling Amazon.
The loss of life of a supply employee surnamed Kim was repeatedly talked about within the newspapers final March, however the professor didn’t assume it might convey a lot change.
Presenting to the media, Coupang’s consultant stated at the moment, the deceased supply employee solely took on half of the workload as a result of he was a beginner. This reveals that the corporate implicitly denied that Kim died from overwork. As well as, job competitors in Korea is extraordinarily harsh, so regardless of working situations that aren’t wholesome for employees, many individuals nonetheless dare to hurry into this job.
Work that anybody can do
“Within the supply service business, I’ve by no means heard of a scarcity of manpower. Principally it is a job that anybody can do. As a sociologist, I’ve noticed it. Many supply employees, each female and male, ship items to houses of all ages from youngsters to individuals of their 60s, if not older.” – Professor Kim stated.
The outbreak of Covid-19 precipitated Koreans to be restricted from going out and that is when the supply service developed quickly.
“I heard that Koreans are turning to on-line ordering extra due to the Covid-19 epidemic. I used to be shocked once I realized about supply companies in different nations… New Zealand, I used to be shocked once I needed to wait 20 days to obtain my order regardless of paying the complete supply charge– Woo Ye-jin, a 25-year-old scholar advised Al Jareza.
Coupang additionally recorded a file variety of orders at a time of intense Covid-19 outbreak. Inside simply 1 day of the top of January 2020, this e-commerce firm acquired greater than 3.Three million orders for subsequent day supply. That is an astounding quantity as a result of earlier than that, Coupang’s order file stood at 1.7 million orders per day in 2019.
For Ha Woong, that quantity merely means he and his colleagues have extra work to do.
Only a 12 months in the past, Ha Woong solely delivered about 80 orders per day on common, however now, the variety of locations he has to go to is 130-150. Ha Woong stated that a few of his colleagues nonetheless have as much as 180 orders per day.
Supply is just not all the time handy. In older buildings with out elevators, supply employees are pressured to jog up and down the flooring to get the job performed. The exhausting guide work was over, Ha Woong and his colleagues additionally needed to endure the strain of lengthy working hours.
“I feel corporations must pay wages in response to the variety of orders we ship every day. As well as, they need to pay extra consideration to the well being and security of employees.” – Ha Woong expressed his opinion.
Ha Woong stated supply employees are fitted with GPS gadgets and obtain bonus factors based mostly on the variety of orders they’ve delivered in addition to the velocity of supply. The upper the rating, the extra money they get.
“In some areas with loads of orders, we’ve to work very early. This can be a actuality that employees don’t usually must face. If I hurry up and ship extra orders from my colleagues, I am stealing their rice bowl.” – Ha Woong added.
Making a dwelling is turning into increasingly more troublesome for Korean employees. In response to 2019 statistics, a mean unpaid employee earns about 1.72 million gained (almost 33.6 million VND on the present change price)/month, a lot decrease than the quantity 3. .16 million gained (67.1 million VND at present change charges) {that a} payroll worker is paid month-to-month.
Discussions are nonetheless open
The variety of unpaid employees in South Korea has elevated from 6.61 million in August 2018 to 7.48 million in August 2019. That is the very best stage for the reason that Korean authorities began recording the variety of contract employees about 17 years in the past.
“In Korea, most supply employees should not official workers of the corporate. They don’t have any payroll and are entitled to a portion of the cash on each order delivered. That’s all. As a result of it isn’t an everyday worker, if somebody dies on the job, the duty doesn’t lie with the supply service firm.“- stated Professor Kim.
For Ha Woong, regardless of the marketing campaign he initiated, he’s nonetheless making an attempt his greatest to do his job nicely, delivering at the least 5 days every week.
“We now have negotiated with the corporate about decreasing orders, altering the way in which we consider in addition to adjusting the administration system that’s forcing us to work in a harsh surroundings like an never-ending battle. However for now. , every part remains to be left open due to the influence of the Covid-19 epidemic” – Ha Woong stated.
