It has been confirmed that two accountants at accounting firm Samjong KPMG died in succession. Inside the firm, some are saying excessive workloads may have played a part.
According to the industry on the 10th, Accountant A, a man in his 30s at Samjong KPMG, died on the 6th. A, a senior manager (SM), was reportedly serving as the "in-charge," overseeing on-site audit operations.
Earlier, on Nov. 22 last year, Accountant B, a man in his 30s at the same firm, also died. B, like A, held the senior manager rank and worked as an on-site audit lead.
With two accountants in the same rank and role dying within three months, voices inside the company argued that excessive work may be the cause. In particular, even during A's funeral period, teammates reportedly worked overtime to submit the audit report.
On the Samjong KPMG board of the anonymous office worker community Blind, reactions such as "Two SMs left due to overwork" and "It is devastating and heartbreaking that we have to process work even in the face of a colleague's death" continued. However, recognition of death by overwork is determined after a causality review when there is an industrial accident claim with the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL).
In the industry, some also point out that strengthened audit oversight by the financial authorities has increased the workload of field accountants. To prevent "inadequate audits," the financial authorities have strengthened management and oversight, such as inspecting auditors when audit hours are deemed to have been under-allocated.
An accountant said, "Inside the organization, while mourning a colleague's death, there is also concern about who will shoulder the work the colleague handled."