Many health problems have marked the rest of their lives.

A few weeks ago, Samsung concluded a lawsuit on financial compensation with its former employees who suffer from occupational health problems due to poor working conditions in one of the chip factories.

According to Associated Press, the head of the electronics division of South Korean producer Kinam Kim officially apologized to the affected families last Friday.

“We sincerely apologize to all our former sick and family employees,” said Kinam Kim at a press conference in Seoul, which was attended by activists in addition to the relatives of the ex-workers concerned.

Despite the fact that Samsung representatives have acknowledged neglect of safety regulations in their operations, the company has still not officially acknowledged that the factory working environment is directly related to the disease of former employees.

Let us remind you that in 2016, we dealt with serious cases of serious illnesses of employees of the South Korean production plant Samsung Electronics with possible connection to the working environment in factories.

11-year fight

The issue has been studied for a long time by the independent organization Sharps, which was founded together with other employees by Hwang Sang-gi. His daughter died of leukemia in 2007 just after she worked for Samsung for four years.

The main goal of the organization is to fight for workplace safety in the South Korean manufacturer. At the same time, Sharps reportedly documented more than two hundred cases of serious ex-occupational disease, with lymphomas, mutliplex sclerosis, lupus and leukemia among the diagnoses. At the same time, it recorded 76 deaths of predominantly young people by August 2016.

In connection with the case, the fact that producers in South Korea had to apply for permission if they wanted to use chemicals in the manufacturing process was also mentioned. Employees asked for information about what chemicals they were working with.

In addition, according to local legislation, an employer is required by law to disclose the necessary information if it is “necessary to protect lives, physical security and health”. However, Samsung did not always do this and argued in the protection of business secrets.

There will be more compensation

According to Samsung’s agreement, it will compensate former workers with various health issues who have been working in chip and LCD factories since 1984. More than 150 million South Korean won (nearly EUR 118 thousand) pay off to people with leukemia.

Also, former workers who have been aborted or have children with congenital disorder or cancer are entitled to compensation.

“No excuse is enough to realize what humiliation we have experienced with Samsung over the past 11 years. We had to suffer a lot of pain because of the loss of our loved ones and the occupational disease, Hwang said. “I see today’s excuse from Samsung as a promise to improve security at its workplace,” he added.

Recall that since 2007, a dozen former Samsung employees have called for a financial compensation from the South Korean government for occupational disease. Some have seen it after several years of lawsuit, half of which has been rejected or is still being investigated.