K-COMWEL Seeks New Leap through Reorganization on 30th Anniversary

President Park Jong-kil of Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL), former K-COMWEL presidents the first president, Park Hong-seop, and the seventh president, Lee Jae-gap, and Lee Min-jae, director-general of the Occupational Safety and Health Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) participate in a ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary at K-COMWEL headquarters in Busan on April 24. (Photo: K-COMWEL)

Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL) held the 30th anniversary at K-COMWEL headquarters in Busan on April 24.

Among those on hand at the anniversary event were former K-COMWEL presidents — the first president, Park Hong-seop, and the seventh president, Lee Jae-gap, Lee Min-jae, director-general of the Occupational Safety and Health Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), and K-COMWEL President Park Jong-kil.

Participants took time to share K-COMWEL’s achievements over the past 30 years and to pledge a leap forward with a new vision for the next 30 years.

In his commemorative speech, K-COMWEL President Kim said, “K-COMWEL, celebrating 30 years this year has designated the catchphrase ‘The Greenest, the Hottest,’ and we will make a leap forward and achieve growth as genuine happiness partners of all workers through endless change and innovation with a passionate and aggressive attitude in accordance with the slogan.”

K-COMWEL was established as an occupational health and safety insurance management institution in May 1995.

For the past 30 years, the organization has grown greatly in terms of business and organization.

The number of occupational health and safety insurance worksites and insurance policyholders surged from 180,000 and 7.9 million in 1995 to 3 million and 21.42 million in 2024, respectively.

Occupational health and safety insurance recipients increased from 130,000 to 400,000, while compensation amounts jumped from 1 trillion won to 7 trillion won.

K-COMWEL started as an institution with 47 units and 1,195 employees. Currently, the organization has 136 headquarters and associated units and 10,054 employees.

Its annual budget stands at 10.6 trillion won, making it the second largest quasi-government institution.

K-COMWEL has inaugurated the Occupational Disease Bureau, the Retirement & Pension Bureau and the Safety and Ethics Management Headquarters, effective on May 1.

The steps are designed to effectively cope with rising occupational diseases and spread the utilization of retirement pension savings.

The organization seeks to push for the enactment of the Act on K-COMWEL to ramp up its identity, such as the purpose of its establishment and clarification of business scope.

K-COMWEL plans to expand its welfare business scope so a variety of employment types, such as platform employees, can be covered.

K-COMWEL Declares Safety and Health Management as Frist Priority Value

Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service held a ceremony to award the 1st Safety Management Grand Prize targeting affiliated units recognized for conducting their excellent safety and health management activities for last year on March 25.

The Safety Management Grand Prize was established this year as part of efforts to create an environment of ensuring the safety and health of K-COMWEL customers and staffers by compensating their efforts of practicing affiliated units’ efforts to put safety and health management into practice.

Winners of the 1st Safety Management Grand Prize have gone to Incheon Hospital, run by K-COMWEL, Jinhae Children’s House and K-COMWEL’s Jeju branch.

They obtained excellent overall points in an evaluation of nine indexes, including danger evaluation faithfulness degree in four categories, such as prevention-oriented safety management.

K-COMWEL performs 14 diverse responsibilities, such as occupational disease insurance, employment insurance, K-COMWEL-run rehabilitation hospitals, and public office children’s houses.

In particular, some 6,000 patients – 1,700 inpatients and some 4,500 outpatients – use 11 hospitals, run by K-COMWEL, while 37 children’s houses run by K-COMWEL accommodate 3,300 children.

K-COMWEL inaugurated the Safety Management Grand Prize to attach top priority to ensuring the safety and health management of its customers and staffers since a majority of its customers, such patients and children, are vulnerable to safety.

K-COMWEL plans to ramp up safety and health management activities by inaugurating the Safety and Ethics Management Headquarters in the reorganization conducted on May 1.

K-COMWEL President Park Jong-kil said, “Labor and management have joined forces to protect the safety and health of outside and inside customers, and they have jointly presented he Safety Management Grand Prize.”

“We will make K-COMWEL an safe institution growing together with customers through tightly knitted and thorough safety inspection on the occasion of the 30th anniversary,” he added.