The Supreme Court judged that due to the working conditions of female workers, the fetus had congenital disease, and that it should be reported as an occupational accident and paid for workers' compensation.

It is the first ruling issued by the Supreme Court to determine whether a congenital disease of a child born is included in the worker's occupational accident.

Supreme Court Division 2 (Judge Supreme Court Chief Justice Sang-Hwan Kim) was sentenced to a plaintiff's defeat in a court of appeals filed against the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation, saying that four people including Nurse A, who had worked at the Jeju Medical Center on the 29th, said, "Cancel the disposition that refused to apply for medical care benefits." Broke it and sent it back to Seoul Old School.

Four nurses of Jeju Medical Center gave birth to children the following year after suffering pregnancy and other signs of miscarriage in 2009. All four children were born with congenital heart disease.

Later, they filed for claims for nursing care, saying they had been exposed to harmful factors in the early stages of pregnancy and had a disease in their heart.

At the time, Jeju Medical Center was found to have a high turnover rate due to high labor intensity and irregular shifts and insufficient manpower.

In particular, the majority of inpatients were aged 70 years or older, and nurses crushed the powder when they couldn't swallow the pills, but it was found that many of the drugs banned by pregnant women and women of childbearing age were also included in the crushing target.

At the trial, the issue was whether such working conditions were causally related to congenital diseases of fetuses, and whether the fetus was included in the scope of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act.

The Korea Welfare and Welfare Service insisted that the fetus was not eligible for medical care benefits because the workers' compensation was limited to the workers themselves.

On the other hand, nurses contend that the fetus should be recognized as a mother's disease as much as it is ill when the fetus is in the mother's body.

The first trial raised the hands of nurses.

"In principle, the mother and the fetus are monolithic, and any effect on the fetus and the legal rights and obligations resulting therefrom belong to the mother." It must be regarded as a work-related disaster that has occurred to people. "

However, the judgment of the appeal was different.

This is because even if a female worker gave birth to a child with an illness due to a work-related disaster, it is not because of the mother's disease that the mother does not have the right to receive medical care.

The Supreme Court overturned it again.

The Supreme Court said, "The 'fetal health damage' that occurs for pregnant women workers due to their work, regardless of the effect (disease) on the workers 'labor ability, is the' working accident 'of the workers specified in Article 5, Section 1 of the Workers' Compensation Insurance Act. Is included. "

In the interpretation of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, the mother and the fetus are treated as 'one in nature', and the female worker and the fetus should be sufficiently protected from the harmful factors that may occur during pregnancy and childbirth.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court found that female workers do not lose the right to receive nursing care benefits for congenital diseases, such as those born to mothers born after birth.

(Photo = Yonhap News)