[Newsmaker] Coupang deliveryman found dead attempting late-night delivery

A deliveryman was found dead while working after midnight for Coupang. The exact cause of death is not known.

According to the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union on Sunday, the 46-year-old contract worker, surnamed Kim, was found Thursday around 2 a.m. between the fourth and fifth floors of a residential building in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. The building had no elevator.

“Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, deliveries of heavy daily necessities such as rice, drinking water and detergent have spiked. In some buildings without elevators, we have to take the stairs,” said Choi Se-wook, who belongs to a union for Coupang workers that is under the KPTU umbrella.

“After the outbreak, skilled delivery workers visit about 160 places and deliver 300 packages per shift. For inexperienced employees like Kim, who had been in the field for 13 days, they visit about 100 locations and deliver 200 packages. Before the outbreak, they visited about 60 places,” Choi added.

Discussing Kim’s death, Coupang said his workload was about half that of an average Coupang delivery worker because he was new to the company.

“Coupang abides by working hours set by law and speculation that Kim had to process two to three times more than his usual quota of packages is out of the question. Even skilled workers can’t do that,” said a Coupang official.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)