Logistics firms should end exploitation of workers
Hanjin Transportation has decided to do away with overnight parcel delivery services starting next month. The decision by Korea's second-largest logistics company came amid growing social indignation over a recent series of deaths of delivery workers traceable to excessive workloads. The logistics arm of Hanjin Group will end overnight deliveries after 10 p.m. and allow employees to handle undelivered parcels the following day. It will also put 1,000 additional workers into sorting parcels, eliminating another source of extended working hours.
CJ Logistics and Lotte Global Logistics announced similar steps, including measures to prevent industrial accidents. It seems appropriate that these companies have come up with such countermeasures focused on the prevention of overwork. Demand for “fast and predawn” parcel delivery services has surged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as more stay-at-home buyers are resorting to online shopping to avoid the risk of infection. However, these firms have made little effort to improve aggravated working conditions, leading to more than 10 deaths.
Those companies should keep their belated promises by all means. Most noticeable among such steps is the avowed discontinuation of midnight delivery services. If past experiences are any guide, however, employers may feel tempted to go back on their words once the crisis is over. Only when they follow through on their promises, will consumers reduce their psychological burden and show favorable responses to logistics firms' moves.
Excessively long working hours are not confined to parcel delivery workers. Numerous workers are still being exposed to the risk of death from overwork even after our country joined the advanced nations' ranks. Last year, the average Korean employee worked 1,957 hours. This about 300 hours longer than the OECD members' average, and 600 to 700 hours longer than those in Germany and France. The recent tragic deaths have reaffirmed the inhumanity and evils of an “overworking society.” The government and the National Assembly should mitigate the delivery workers' plight first and tackle the problem of excessive working hours to produce substantive and concrete results.