Legal information

Yes, in most cases. An accident while commuting (출퇴근 재해) counts as a work accident under Korean industrial accident insurance (산재보험), as long as you were on a normal route, using a normal method, between your home and your workplace. This covers the company bus, the dormitory van, your own car, a bicycle, a scooter and walking. The main thing that can break the cover is a detour for private reasons.

Which trips count as commuting?

The law describes two situations:

• Transport the employer controls. A company shuttle, a van the foreman drives from the dormitory, or any transport the employer provides or arranges.
• Your own way to work. Public bus, subway, your car, a friend's car, bicycle, electric scooter or on foot, as long as the route and the method are the ones a person would normally use.

A trip from one worksite to another for the same job is also commuting. Going from the field to the packing shed, or from the first construction site to the second, is covered on the same basis.

Many foreign workers live in a dormitory on the employer's land. A fall on the path between the dormitory and the workshop is still a commute, even if it is 50 meters long. If the dormitory is far and the employer sends a vehicle, that vehicle is the employer's transport.

What breaks the cover?

A detour or interruption (경로 일탈·중단) for a private purpose. If you leave the normal route to visit a friend, go drinking, or run a personal errand, an accident during that detour and on the rest of that trip is generally not treated as a commuting accident.

There are exceptions for ordinary daily needs. The exceptions are set by presidential decree, and they are usually understood to include things like buying groceries, dropping a child at daycare, visiting a hospital, or voting. If your stop was something a normal person does on the way home, do not assume you lost the cover. Explain the stop honestly in the claim.

Two other limits:

• An accident caused by your own crime or intentional act is excluded. Driving with no valid licence or while drunk may be judged this way, so the cover is at real risk in those cases.
• Some jobs with no fixed route or method, set by decree, are left out of the second category above. Ask if you are a driver or delivery worker.

Is a foreign worker on E-9, H-2 or no visa covered the same way?

Yes. The cover attaches to the job, not to the visa, and the definition of worker is borrowed from the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법). An employer who skipped the insurance registration does not take your claim away; the insurer settles that with the employer later.

A worker whose visa has expired can also file. Whether filing leads to any immigration contact is governed by separate rules, so raise that question before you file if it is a concern.

I used my own car. Does car insurance replace this?

No, they sit side by side. You may claim from the other driver's car insurance and from industrial accident insurance for the same accident. You will not be paid twice for the same loss: an amount already paid by one side is deducted by the other. In practice the industrial accident side is often stronger over the long run, because it keeps paying while you cannot work and adds a disability benefit later. Avoid a quick final settlement with a car insurer until you know what the industrial accident side would give.

What should I collect?

Save a map screenshot of your route the same day. Memory of "I always go this way" is weaker than a map and a bus card record.

How do I claim?

Submit a benefit application to the insurer, the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (근로복지공단). A commuting claim has extra questions about route, method and purpose of the trip, so prepare those answers first. No confirmation from the employer is needed on the form. If filling it in Korean is beyond you, a representative may submit it on your behalf.

The right to claim lapses three years after the day you could first claim, so do not wait until you leave Korea.

Next step

Write down your route, method and the exact time of the accident today, before details fade. If the employer says a commuting accident is "not their problem", that is true only in the sense that the insurance body pays, not the employer; it does not mean you have no claim. Consultations are paid; contact us and a staff member will call you back and explain the fee.

법무법인 대한중앙
1533-7377

Rules applied

Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (산업재해보상보험법) Article 5(8) (definition of commuting, including between two worksites), Article 37(1)3 (commuting accident: employer-controlled transport, and normal route and method), Article 37(2) (own crime or intentional act excluded), Article 37(3) (detour or interruption, with exceptions by decree), Article 37(4) (jobs with no fixed route, by decree), Article 80(3) (set-off against other compensation), Article 112(1) (3-year limit).

This is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different.