Rep. Park Hong-bae of the Democratic Party of Korea [provided by the lawmaker's office]
Rep. Park Hong-bae of the Democratic Party of Korea [provided by the lawmaker's office]

Rep. Park Hong-bae of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, announced Tuesday that he had introduced two bills aimed at protecting the health of night workers, including delivery workers — an amendment to the Occupational Safety and Health Act and an amendment to the Living Logistics Service Industry Development Act.

The proposed legislation frames the growing burden of night work — driven by the expansion of late-night and early-morning delivery — not merely as a matter of working hours or pay, but as an occupational safety and health issue requiring protections for workers' lives and wellbeing. The Occupational Safety and Health Act amendment would establish minimum health protection standards for night workers, while the Living Logistics Service Industry Development Act amendment would set out specific safeguards tailored to the delivery industry.

According to Park, the first and second rounds of social dialogue on the delivery sector — prompted by a series of deaths from overwork among delivery workers — yielded meaningful results, including improvements to sorting operations, guarantees of appropriate working hours and expanded social insurance coverage.

Since then, calls have grown for institutional measures to address the health risks of night work arising from the expansion of late-night delivery. The third round of delivery sector social dialogue also took up health protection, night-shift hour management, guaranteed rest periods and rationalization of work scope as key agenda items.

Park has consistently maintained that issues on which consensus was reached through social dialogue should be codified into law, and that the National Assembly bears responsibility for filling in gaps — particularly on night-shift hour limits and health protection standards — where agreement was not reached.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act amendment would explicitly designate night work as subject to health measures for preventing work-related illness, and would set an upper limit on night-shift hours, restrict consecutive nights of work, require rest periods and health screenings, protect workers deemed unfit for night work, and mandate the recording and retention of night-shift hours.

The Living Logistics Service Industry Development Act amendment would apply those standards to delivery worksites and add provisions restricting duties beyond pickup and delivery, requiring written agreements and fair compensation for additional tasks, mandating night-shift pay premiums, establishing management responsibilities for primary delivery operators and providing the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport with grounds to issue improvement orders.

"Early-morning and late-night delivery has made daily life more convenient for the public, but that convenience must not come at the cost of workers' health and lives," Park said. "These two bills are a first step toward enshrining in law the social consensus identified through dialogue, and I hope they will serve as an opportunity to guarantee the right of delivery workers and all night workers to work in good health."


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