2 words keep sick Samsung workers from data: trade secrets
Source: Associated Press
2 words keep sick Samsung workers from data: trade secrets
Youkyung Lee, Ap Technology Writer
Updated 10:32 pm, Wednesday, August 10, 2016
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As a high school senior, Hwang Yu-mi went to work bathing silicon wafers in chemicals at a Samsung factory that makes computer chips for laptops and other devices. Four years later, she died of leukemia. She was 22.
After Yu-mi's death in 2007, her father, Hwang Sang-gi, learned a 30-year-old worker at the same semiconductor line also had died of leukemia. Convinced they died because of their work, the taxi driver launched a movement demanding the government investigate health risks at Samsung Electronics Co. factories.
When Hwang sued after his first claim for government compensation was denied, he struggled to get details about the factory environment. A government document he received about his daughter's workplace had a section for listing the chemicals used there, but that space was left blank because Samsung did not release that information to worker-safety officials.
An Associated Press investigation has found South Korean authorities have, at Samsung's request, repeatedly withheld from workers and their bereaved families crucial information about chemicals they were exposed to at its computer chip and liquid crystal display factories. Sick workers are supposed to have access to such data through the government or the courts so they can apply for workers' compensation from the state. Without it, government officials commonly reject their cases.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/business/technology/article/2-words-keep-sick-Samsung-workers-from-data-9133149.php
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