♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ huh wonjea: four twenty-five is the time

that i get into my truck. bit sleepy, but i turn on my radio usually, so i try to boost up myself by listening to all that old goodies like this, and i try myself to be a bit, you know, cheerful and then bit fresh, so i can enjoy my whole day, in fact. ah, this is national anthem though. the starting of the day. this is korean national anthem.

carrington clarke: sixty-one-year-old delivery driver huh wonjea is a subcontractor with the korean postal service. he works an average of 14 hours a day, or 70 hours a week. carrington: his shift begins at the regional distribution center. there are thousands of parcels here waiting to be sorted, not by warehouse staff but by the drivers themselves. carrington: this is one of the major complaints of these delivery drivers. they spend hours at the beginning of their shift, sorting and then loading these packages onto their truck,

and they say they're not paid for those hours. huh: our job is deliver the stuff. that's our job. it's clearly stated in our contract, but before that, we have to spend, like, four hours every day before we begin our job, without payment. carrington: drivers are only paid when they deliver an item, around $1.00 to $1.50 per parcel. the boom in online shopping, due to covid-19, means drivers are spending even longer sorting packages, delaying when they can start their deliveries. since the pandemic began, 21 delivery workers have died. unions say it's from overwork. huh: it's not just car accident, like that. they just collapsed during the work.

this is not right. this is not right. they claim that the government successfully managed the defense of this pandemic situation which might be true. who was the one who was sacrificed to support them? we are the one. we are the ones who sacrifice to support their system. ♪♪♪ carrington: south korea has the longest working hours in the developed world. hard work transformed this country from a war-torn japanese colony into the world's tenth-largest economy in just a few generations. leaders promised the people that their sacrifices would pay off, their children would reap the rewards, but many koreans say they're still paying the cost.

death by overwork is so common, there's a word for it: "kwarosa." [speaking korean] carrington: delivery workers stage a rally in downtown seoul. in january this year, logistics companies agreed to hire new staff to sort parcels, to reduce working hours, and to stop deliveries after 9 p.m. six months on, unions say the promises have not been honored. carrington: the protest comes just days after yet

another driver collapsed. on the june 13th, a 48-year-old father of two named im gwang soo suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and fell into a coma. carrington: lee seong wook worked side by side with gwang soo. he knows how easily it could have been him. ♪♪♪

carrington: like gwang soo, seong wook is in his 40s with two kids and works around 90 hours a week. his workload means he rarely sees his children. carrington: after sorting packages all morning, it's afternoon before he can make his first delivery. ♪♪♪

lee: whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ carrington: just before 9 p.m., after 14 hours on the job, seong wook gets an automated message from the company.

carrington: seong wook keeps working. it'll take at least another hour to finish. for the fresh food he delivers after 9 p.m., he'll pay penalties. carrington: that's a fine of roughly $60 for an item

he's paid less than $1 to deliver. carrington: seong wook finally wraps up around 11 p.m. for a 16-hour day, he's earned around $180. that's before he's paid tax, his petrol, or phone bills, or any penalties for late deliveries.

[children laughing] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

carrington: 27-year-old jang deok-joon returned home from a night shift at 6 a.m., on october the 12th, 2020. he went to the bathroom to shower. when he hadn't emerged an hour later, his father opened the door. carrington: deok-joon worked for the e-commerce giant coupang, often described as korea's amazon. he worked in one of their fulfillment centers, preparing items for delivery. coupang manages its own logistics and has used

artificial intelligence and real-time productivity monitoring to make its distribution chain the fastest in the business.

carrington: deok-joon died of a heart attack. coupang insisted it was not work-related, but his parents refused to accept the denial.

they traveled to fulfillment centers all over the country with a delivery truck bearing the slogan "coupang killed my son." finally, after months of campaigning, they received an official ruling: their son's death was caused by overwork.

♪♪♪ ryan brown: our sincere condolences go to his family. they have our deepest sympathy. you know, today, coupang is the third-largest employer in korea,

and you know, that's about 50,000 people, and if you think about 50,000 people over the course of a year, you're gonna have any number of personal medical conditions from within that population. carrington: so, just be clear, do you believe that this was a personal medical incident, or this was a work-related death, a death because of overwork at coupang? ryan: the government ruled this to be an industrial incident, and we do accept that. the logistics industry in korea averages about 80 accident-related fatalities a year, and you know, coupang, from the start, has prioritized the health and safety of its workers. we have nurses working with our medical director,

who are trying to continually find-- ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ carrington: and do i keep doing this side? huh: hmm? carrington: do i keep doing this side, or should i do this side? huh: no, that one first. carrington: i'm back with huh wonjea, helping him sort parcels at the distribution center in incheon. huh: carrington, do you know that i'm not getting paid for this, right? carrington: yeah, that seems crazy to me. huh: no, what i'm saying is that i-- so i won't be able to pay you.

carrington: wonjea never planned to be a delivery driver. he holds a master's degree in english and ran his own language schools in canada and japan. he moved back to korea to be close to his aging mother, who has early-stage dementia. despite his qualifications and experience, he struggled to find work. huh: i still thought at the time that i could get some positions in some university because i used to teach in universities as well, but i have to support myself and then also i have to support my mother. she's sort of handicapped because of her illness, so i visit my mom as often as possible whenever i can.

♪♪♪ huh: umma. huh: i think that--

huh: her memory fades away. she was kind of mixed up with her memory just now when i asked her when she married. carrington: wonjea's father was an activist in the korean

independence movement that fought to liberate korea from japanese colonial rule. he met wonjea's mother in the 1940s when she was just a teenager. huh: what she's really clearly remembering is the first moment that he kissed her under the light of that electric pole, she's telling. ♪♪♪ huh: during the colonial period, these polarizations, in terms of the controlling power, same thing is happening even

nowadays in the development of this capitalism, these economically and politically polarized people. maybe the whole country's been developing, but still, in terms of the fair distribution of the assets or human rights, not really fairly developed yet. ♪♪♪ carrington: while we've been filming this story, covid infections have soared in south korea to their highest level yet.

♪♪♪ carrington: as restrictions begin to tighten once more, so does the strain on delivery workers. carrington: lee seong wook is busier than ever. he's a branch leader of the delivery workers' union and has been trying to organize a protest in honor of his colleague im gwang soo who is still in a coma.

carrington: seong wook has brought his workmate's truck back to his house for safekeeping. carrington: seong wook is separated from his wife and lives alone. it's been six months since he's hugged his daughters.

lee: bye-bye. both: bye-bye. ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com

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