Authorities recognized the death of a flight attendant who took her own life after suffering from depression as an industrial accident. She suffered from depression while on furlough due to COVID-19. Applications for workers’ compensation for mental diseases triggered by COVID-19 have soared by 75% from the previous year, and more cases in other industries are expected to be recognized as work-related incidents.

According to the coverage by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on November 8, the Workers’ Compensation Insurance (WCI) Eligibility Review Commission at the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service notified the results on the late A, a former Korean Air flight attendant, recognizing her death as a work-related accident after a review on September 30.

A, who was a cabin crew member of Korean Air, began working on a rotating schedule according to the company policy after the number of flights dropped because of COVID-19 last year. She was furloughed from March until June. She returned to work in July, flew for thirteen days, and then went on furlough indefinitely. While on furlough, she only received the ordinary wage. Flight attendants have a low basic wage, and a high proportion of their income comes from allowances and bonuses. So during furlough, they can only receive about 60% of their usual income. This forced a heavy financial burden on A, but due to the company’s employment regulations, which ban employees from taking on other jobs as well as part-time jobs, A had trouble finding another source of income. Currently, the rules have been revised, but at the time, the government funds to help businesses maintain their employees could be suspended if an employee got another job. A suffered from depression while on standby indefinitely, and last autumn she chose to take her own life. Her bereaved family applied for workers’ compensation insurance at the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service in March.

A first began suffering from depression when she was furloughed, not when she was working, and the furlough was also caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. So the key issue in this case was whether the suicide was the result of work-related causes.

The WCI Eligibility Review Commission recognized the death as a work-related accident and explained that due to the novel coronavirus, demand for flights dropped, reducing the amount of work and forcing workers repeatedly into unwanted furlough and increasing the instability of the job. Also the commission recognized that the ban on other jobs increased A’s financial burden and that the uncertainty of when she would be able to return to work also affected her depression. The commission said, “It would be right to say that she harmed herself in a state where normal cognitive capabilities had severely weakened to a point that a rational judgment could not be expected.” A Korean Air representative said, “This is the first time that an incident that occurred to an employee on furlough due to COVID-19 was recognized as an industrial accident.”

The commission’s latest decision is expected to send powerful ripples throughout the airline industry, where employment has been unstable due to the pandemic. According to the Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System of the Financial Supervisory Service, as of the end of June there were a total of 35,396 employees working at six listed airlines: Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, T’way Air, Jin Air, and Air Busan. This was 1,804 fewer than in the first half of 2019 (37,200) prior to COVID-19. During the same period the average wage of an employee at these six airline companies dropped 23.9%. The furlough is also continuing indefinitely. At Korean Air, about 18,000 employees including over 6,000 cabin crew members are currently on a rotating paid furlough. In addition to airlines, regardless of business and industry, applications for compensation for work-related mental illnesses during the pandemic have increased significantly. According to the data released by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Sung-won during the parliamentary inspection last month, there were 581 compensation applications for work-related mental illnesses last year, 250 more than the 331 cases in the previous 2019. The labor attorney Jo Chang-yeon (Sanjae), who represented A said, “Thanks to the latest case, there is now a possibility for workers and their bereaved families suffering from unwanted furlough and layoffs during the pandemic to receive compensation from the state.”