It was belatedly revealed that a man in his 20s who worked at the popular bakery "London Bagel Museum" died in July. Before his death, he worked close to 80 hours a week, and death from overwork is suspected. The bereaved family asked the company to apply industrial accident coverage, but the company is said to be refusing.
On the 27th, the Justice Party said in a statement titled "London Bagel Museum should not evade responsibility for the death of a young worker" that "it was reported that a man in his 20s who worked at the cafe suffered from overwork amounting to 58 to 80 hours a week and died in July," adding, "It was 14 months after joining the company in May last year."
The Justice Party emphasized, "[This young worker] went to work at 9 a.m. the day before death and left just before midnight. Five days before death, there was a day of 21 hours of work," and added, "When working hours suddenly increase like this, the possibility of overwork also rises. This suggests that chronic overwork combined with acute overwork may have led to death from overwork."
It continued, "The deceased's employment contract was drawn up based on more than 14 hours of overtime per week, in violation of the 52-hour weekly cap. Actual working hours are much longer than that," and explained, "In the 14 months since joining, the deceased went through four locations. The person moved from Gangnam to Suwon, and then to Incheon, renewing the employment contract three times."
It further argued, "Although the bereaved family applied for an industrial accident, LBM, the operator of London Bagel Museum, is refusing to provide materials related to the deceased's working hours," and "The company keeps repeating the position that the work records it confirmed differ from the family's claims."
The Progressive Party Spokesperson Lee Mi-seon also said in a commentary that day, "The deceased skipped meals and worked more than 15 hours the day before death, and working hours in the week immediately before death increased by as much as 37% compared with the previous 12-week average," and pointed out, "Although the family applied for an industrial accident, Runbemyu's management denies death from overwork and is not even submitting materials to prove working hours."
It went on, "This case starkly reveals how brutal and inhumane the labor reality at London Bagel Museum is," and added, "Even so, the cafe packaged itself as a 'hot place for young people' and brazenly sold products to consumers. Runbemyu's behavior of using the labor and life of young people as the cost of its brand is a clear deception and violence, and a killing born of greed."
In response, the company said it was not true that "there were 21 hours of work in a day or 80 hours in a week."
London Bagel Museum said, "Our employees' average weekly working hours are 43.5 hours," adding, "Store management staff work in shifts of 8 hours a day and 9 hours a day, and all employees have eight days off a month."
It continued, "We cannot completely rule out the possibility that there was overtime not grasped by headquarters during the busy period leading up to the store opening in that period," but added, "We simply cannot accept the bereaved family's claim that extended work reached as much as 80 hours a week."
London Bagel Museum argued that after the deceased joined in May 2024, the person applied for a total of seven instances of overtime over about 13 months (a combined nine hours), and the average weekly working hours during the employment period were 44.1 hours. The bakery's position is that this is a similar level to the average working hours of all company employees (43.5 hours per week).
London Bagel Museum said, "It is not true, as reported in some coverage, that we concealed work records from the bereaved family or refused to provide them," and added, "After receiving the bereaved family's intention to apply for an industrial accident, we delivered work schedules, pay statements, and the employment contract to the family for that purpose."
London Bagel Museum, which opened its first store in Anguk-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, in September 2021, is known as the source of the "bagel craze" and a restaurant famous for "open-run" lines forming even before opening. It is currently operating seven stores nationwide. In July, it was sold to private equity fund (PEF) manager JKL Partners for more than 200 billion won.