"S.Korea’s Coupang under criticism for deaths of overworked couriers, warehouse workers", 23 April 2021

Coupang has been under harsh criticism...for the deaths of several couriers and warehouse workers, which some of the bereaved families and civic activists blamed on overwork and poor working conditions.

“Seven Coupang employees and two subcontractors have died of cardiovascular disorders, such as heart attack, for the past year,” Kwon Young-gook, a lawyer and the co-chair at the Committee for Coupang Workers’ Human Rights and Health, told a recent press conference with foreign correspondents in Seoul.

Kwon said overwork, especially overnight work, and poor labor conditions, specifically at logistics centers, were the main cause of death, adding that Coupang was most aggressively beefing up labor intensity and overnight work for faster delivery as competition intensified.

Coupang...started “rocket delivery” service in 2014 to get pre-midnight orders delivered the next day. It has since grown into the country’s biggest e-commerce retailer, expanding options to “daybreak” and “same-day” deliveries as do its competitors...

Jang Deok-joon, 27, was one of the alleged victims of overnight work who died of a heart attack after returning home from an overnight shift at a Coupang logistics center...

Park [Mi-sook, Jang Deok-joon's mother] said Coupang initially denied its responsibility, and she began fighting against the e-commerce giant that went public in New York last month. The death of Jang, who had worked at the Coupang warehouse for 16 months from 7:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., was officially acknowledged as a work-related incident in February, and Coupang apologized.

Asked by Xinhua about the nine deaths, Coupang said it has had “zero accident deaths” and “only one work-related death” in the last 10 years. It was far lower than the corresponding figures for the entire logistics industry, according to the company.

“Of the nine, two were not Coupang workers and those deaths were not accident-related. Out of the remaining seven Coupang worker deaths, three died from incidents at home or on vacation, and only four incidents occurred on site,” Coupang said.

“All four on-site incidents were heart attack-related… Cardiac and cerebrovascular disorders are the second and 4th leading causes of death in (South) Korea,” the company said.

“Coupang denies responsibility and says ‘do whatever you want,'” said Choi Dong-beom, the husband of the late Park Hyun-kyung who died of a heart attack last June after working as a subcontractor at a cafeteria of the Coupang warehouse in Cheonan...

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Park was swamped with work amid a growing number of online orders, Choi said. Sometimes, his late wife returned home with her clothes stained with blood during her menstrual period because she didn’t even have time to go to the toilet...

Yoon Jae-yong is one of the independent motorbike couriers who work on commission for Coupang Eats, the meal-delivery service of Coupang. Just three days after sorting stuff at a warehouse of a separate logistics firm, the 44-year-old quit the job...

“It was suffocating to work (at the warehouse) because I was not able to go to the toilet. Nobody went to the toilet, so I contained my urine. Of course, I was not able to smoke during work hours. People were exploited like a factory machine (at the warehouse),”...

Coupang said it offers the paid time off, guaranteed bathroom breaks, one-hour breaks for every eight hours worked and full benefits to its directly-hired delivery workers, dubbed “Coupang Friends”, but Yoon is one of the exceptions as he works on commission as an independent contract courier using his own motorbike...