A court has ruled that local governments where school meal cooks worked must pay 10 million won per person in damages to workers who developed lung cancer and received approval for an industrial accident.
On the 8th, Judge Jeong Sun-hee of the Seoul Central District Court's Civil Division 33 ruled partly in favor of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by nine people, including a person surnamed Kang, who worked as school meal cooks, against the state and four local governments—Gwangju, South Jeolla, North Gyeongsang, and Busan.
The nine, including Kang, are cooks who worked at school cafeterias for at least 12 years and received industrial accident approval from Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL) between 2022 and 2024 after the causal link between cooking work and lung cancer was recognized.
The court recognized the local governments' liability for damages and ordered payment of 10 million won per plaintiff. Under the ruling, Gwangju must compensate four plaintiffs, South Jeolla and Busan must each compensate two plaintiffs, and North Gyeongsang must compensate one plaintiff, 10 million won each.
However, the court dismissed the claim for damages against the state.
Earlier, in January last year, Kang and others filed a lawsuit seeking 10 million won per person in damages, saying lung cancer developed because the state and local governments failed to fulfill their duty to protect the bodies and health of meal workers.
The plaintiffs argued that the state excluded school cafeterias from the scope of establishments to which the Occupational Safety and Health Act applies in full and neglected the management and supervision of harmful factors such as cooking fumes (smoke and fine dust generated during cooking).
They also argued that local governments failed to fulfill their duty to protect meal workers by not properly equipping ventilation systems that can safely exhaust cooking fumes and by not providing protective gear.