"After being bullied at work, PTSD came" Mental Industrial Accident, will it apply?

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]

□ Broadcast date and time: January 15, 2025 (Wednesday)
□ Host: Announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Kim Hyo-shin, Labor Minister

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): Labor Law Aldonno Pine Labor Law Office, which makes money to know, is with Kim Hyo-shin, a labor attorney. If you get into an accident while working at work, you'll be compensated for industrial accidents. Many of you probably know this, but there are many who don't know when to apply for industrial accidents or where to tell them. Let's find out about it today. Let's meet through Kim Hyo-shin's video. Hello, Mr. Labor.

◇ Kim Hyo-shin (hereinafter referred to as Kim Hyo-shin): Yes, hello. I'm Kim Hyo-shin.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Today, you will tell me how to apply for industrial accident compensation. Where should I apply?

◇ Kim Hyo-shin: You have to apply to the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation. And more than this, I have to tell you first. There are cases where a lot of people get injured while going to work or walking because of black ice. Even in this case, if you get hurt while going to work using the usual route, you can be recognized as an industrial accident to and from work.

◆ Park Gui-bin: So you get hurt on your way to work or on your way home, but you're still recognized as an industrial accident?

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] That's right. This is the usual route. If you get hurt on the road I go to every time, you can apply for this commuting industrial accident. Then, I think you can get hurt while walking, but you may be confused about whether we should use car insurance or industrial accident insurance when driving like this. But what I always tell you is that if it's a disability or a big accident, it's advantageous to go to an industrial accident, or if it's a little minor, you can treat it with car insurance.

◆ Park Gui Bin: Okay. You can apply to the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation.

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] That's right. You have to apply to the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation, and in fact, there are hospitals designated by the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation as industrial accident-designated hospitals. If you ask for help when applying there, please do it all at the department of Wonmu. However, there are often cases where you have to apply directly if you are not an industrial accident application hospital.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Then you can go to an industrial accident-designated medical institution or a hospital.

◇ Kim Hyo-shin: That's right. You have to fill out an application form for industrial accident care benefits. But if you look at the application form, this medical care benefit application form and a doctor's note will be entered. If you look at the application for medical care benefits, you are supposed to write down the accident status. It's not difficult for you to write down the circumstances of our accident in accordance with the six-and-five-day principle. So you can do that, and now the doctor has to fill out this doctor's note. So if you look at those doctors, they can do everything for you. So, even if it's not a medical institution designated for industrial accident, if you ask the doctor in charge of the hospital I'm attending, you can do it now. There's only one thing that those who are new to it may not know, so it's important to check the employment treatment in addition to writing the budget period and reason for the outpatient clinic in the doctor's note. So, if you check the normal employment availability part, you may not be able to get paid for business suspension. So, you may not be able to get a part of it or receive it, so when our doctor checks it, if it's a little difficult to get a job, it's necessary to actively ask for a little more reasons for not being able to get a job during the outpatient period.

◆ Park Gui-bin: For those who have had an industrial accident, you can apply to the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation directly or go to a hospital with industrial accident designation to apply for it more easily. If it's a hospital that doesn't have an industrial accident designation, and it's my main hospital, you can go there and fill out an application for medical care benefits. Industrial accident compensation insurance statement?

◇ Kim Hyo-shin: Yes, you can fill out the medical care benefit application form yourself and the doctor's note that needs to be entered with you can ask our doctor to fill it out and submit it together.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, and it is important to check the employment treatment well other than writing down the reason.

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] Yes, that's right.

◆ Park Gui-bin: So can I get compensation for industrial accidents if I get hurt while working like this?

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] That's right. If you look at it as a prerequisite, you can get compensation as long as you get hurt. But getting hurt should be a case where you need to take care of yourself for more than four days. But if you say more than 4 days here, it doesn't mean that you go to the hospital for more than 4 days. It just means the duration of treatment. That's why I just need to be treated for more than four days because I'm hurt. So, to put it simply, people say a lot about how many days the medical certificate came out. You just need to have more than four days on the medical certificate.

◆ Park Gui-bin: I see. Please tell me what kinds of industrial accident compensation are available. First of all, I'll get paid for the hospital fee, right?

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] That's right. There are disability benefits, other care expenses, and in case of death, there are survivors benefits and funeral expenses.Most basically, if you're hurt, you have to receive hospital treatment fees, or if you can't go to work, you'll be paid unpaid by the company, so you can receive our school closure benefits. So, the hospital treatment fee is called medical care benefits, and if you go to the hospital and have details of the treatment before the industrial accident approval time, you can charge it separately and receive it now. In the end, there is a high possibility that the hospital treatment may not be handled by the public corporation and the Health Insurance Corporation, so there is nothing I have to receive myself. However, as expected, the vacation pay I have to receive because I can't work is directly related to what I have to receive. So at that time, I don't get 100% of my salary. Just understand that 70% of the average wage is simply 70% of the salary as a vacation allowance.

◆ Park Gui-bin: When you can't work due to industrial accidents, you can get a vacation pay because you can't get paid by the company, which is about 70% of your average wage. But there are many people who provide mental labor these days, so industrial accident compensation is possible for this neuropsychiatric disease, right?

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] Yes, that's right. This is also stipulated in the Enforcement Decree of the Industrial Accident Act. It is defined as an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder, adaptation disorder, and depression. In addition, if only work relevance is recognized, all can be recognized as industrial accidents. So these days, if you look at the statistics portal or data uploaded to it by the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation in 2022, about 667 cases have been applied for about 22 years, and about 70% of them have been approved. However, looking at the number of applications here, it has been approved for depression, adaptation disorder, acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorder. This may be considered very high because the approval rate compared to the total number of neuropsychiatric disease applications is 70%, but it is extremely low in terms of the total number of industrial accident applications and recognition. It is a bit difficult to get the approval of the industrial accident of the neuropsychiatric disease. Now I can tell you that.

◆ Park Gui-bin: You just mentioned PTSD, so if I have an accident myself, it can be PTSD, but even if I'm not the person involved, I can still develop PTSD. That's right. Is this possible?

◇ Kim Hyo-shin: Actually, we don't think there are many cases where the industrial accident approval can be applied for this yet. Because if we keep thinking about the institutions that receive treatment well because of direct accidents and the appearance of the accident, the victim has well-equipped procedures that are approved like this. Since you are injured, there are many cases where people who witness it next to you suffer from the injury and the guilt that I couldn't do anything about it. So in this case, this is about 0.2%. This is because the percentage of applications for calculation due to post-industrial stress accounts for only about 0.2% of the total number of applications for calculation.

◆ Park Gui-bin: The number of applications itself.

◇ Kim Hyo-shin: Yes, so in the case of witnesses who are not directly involved, the approval rate seems to be almost low now even if they did not apply for industrial accidents much. I'll tell you this much because there are no reported materials.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Then, the application rate was very small earlier, but are there cases where the applicants are recognized as industrial accidents?

◇ Kim Hyo-shin: That's right, because when it comes to disease rights, we generally don't go through the governor's advisory committee, but the disease judgment committee, and that's why we decide whether to approve it or not. In the case of the Disease Judgment Committee, a total of 7 people are formed, and now the legal committee consists of a total of 7 people, including a lawyer, a labor attorney, and a clinical doctor, and a vocational environment doctor. So the approval rate is not very high because the judgment is made there.

◆ Park Gui-bin: In addition to post-traumatic stress disorder, there are people who suffer from depression or adaptation anxiety disorder due to bullying or sexual harassment at work these days. In this case, it's not that my body is hurt, so what evidence do you say that even if I want to apply for an industrial accident? I think I need something like that. Is there any preparation that I can do on my own?

◇ Kim Hyo-shin: Actually, first of all, in the case of workplace harassment, a lot of people apply for industrial accidents. In any case, there are many parts where I think it would be naturally recognized if I only had a history of being bullied at work and went to a psychiatrist for treatment. But that's not enough. First of all, you will need details that have been directly recognized by the Ministry of Labor or other related organizations due to workplace harassment. Then, in addition to acknowledging that he was very distressed by bullying at work, he suffered a lot. Then, I need help with statements from people who witnessed depression or situations like this. So, in the case of help from these fellow workers or something else, if we don't get help from this, we need to collect evidence of such acts that I have been bullied through SNS or other messengers.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Are you saying that I can capture the messages I received and write evidence?

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] That's right. So I know that this person is now bullying in the workplace, but it seems to be looking at whether this was serious enough to cause depression.

◆ Park Gui Bin: Okay. Today, I summarized the procedure on how to apply for compensation for industrial accident, and I also pointed out the situation of those who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, especially those who witnessed it, including the industrial accident application process. Thank you again today.

◇ [Kim Hyo-shin] Yes, thank you.

◆ Park Gui-bin: This was Kim Hyo-shin, a labor attorney.