Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service

A public institution under the Ministry of Employment and Labor responsible for industrial accident compensation insurance (industrial accident insurance), the collection of employment and industrial

Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service

Overview

The Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (Korean: 근로복지공단; Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, abbreviated KCOMWEL) is a quasi-governmental institution under the Ministry of Employment and Labor established pursuant to the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act. It carries out worker welfare projects such as the payment of insurance benefits to workers who suffer industrial accidents, support for rehabilitation and return to work, the collection of employment insurance and industrial accident compensation insurance premiums, loans for workers' livelihood stabilization funds, and credit guarantees. As the insurer of industrial accident insurance, its core function is to provide compensation to injured workers on behalf of employers, and its role is distinguished from that of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency in that it is responsible for the area of "compensation and rehabilitation" rather than the prevention of industrial accidents.

Main Content

Purpose of Establishment and History

The Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act was enacted in 1963, and the system was implemented the following year. In 1987, the Korea Workers' Welfare Corporation was established to take exclusive charge of industrial accident insurance affairs. In 1995, its name was changed to the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, and since then it has continuously expanded the scope of its work. In 2010, it took over the collection of employment insurance and industrial accident insurance premiums, which had been handled by the National Health Insurance Service, establishing a system in which the imposition and collection of premiums and the payment of benefits are integrated and processed by a single institution. In 2017, it relocated its headquarters from Seoul to Ulsan Metropolitan City, enhancing balanced regional development and accessibility to areas with a high incidence of industrial accidents.

Major Projects

1. Industrial Accident Insurance Benefits: These include medical care benefits, temporary disability benefits, sickness and injury compensation pensions, disability benefits, nursing benefits, survivors' benefits, funeral expenses, and vocational rehabilitation benefits. The procedure for reviewing and determining whether an injury qualifies as an occupational accident (including occupational diseases) is one of the agency's core tasks, and in recent years improving the transparency of determination standards and review procedures has emerged as a major issue.

2. Premium Collection: It issues integrated notices for and collects employment insurance premiums and industrial accident insurance premiums, and while voluntary reporting by workplaces is the principle, it also carries out support for faithful reporting and arrears management.

3. Rehabilitation and Return to Work: It operates vocational rehabilitation programs that support injured workers' return to their original jobs and reemployment, entrusts vocational training, provides rehabilitation assistive devices, and offers medical rehabilitation services through industrial accident hospitals.

4. Worker Welfare Projects: These include loans for workers' livelihood stabilization funds, the Workers' Credit Guarantee Fund, scholarships and tuition support, and the operation of recreation facilities; in particular, credit guarantees play a role in improving financial access for low-income workers who lack collateral.

Organization and Operation

With its headquarters in Ulsan at the center, regional headquarters and branch offices are deployed nationwide, allowing workplaces and workers to handle civil affairs and applications at the regional level. It operates industrial accident hospitals dedicated to industrial accident medical care and rehabilitation (in Incheon, Daegu, Daejeon, Ansan, Taebaek, Jeongseon, Suncheon, Ulsan, Changwon, Donghae, and elsewhere), and hospitals and branch offices work together to form a support system that connects treatment through to return to work. Its financial resources are raised through industrial accident insurance premiums and employment insurance premiums paid by employers, government subsidies, and fund management profits, and the Industrial Accident Insurance Fund is managed under a separate account.

Recent Trends

As the Serious Accidents Punishment Act was expanded and applied to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees starting in January 2024, social interest in industrial accident insurance and accident compensation increased greatly. Accordingly, discussions have continued on the scope of recognition of occupational accidents, determination standards for mental illness and overwork-related diseases, and the need to protect subcontract workers, workers in special forms of employment, and platform workers. In 2024–2025, the periodic revision of industrial accident insurance premium rates, improvement of the integrated collection and operation of employment and industrial accident insurance premiums, and measures to ease the premium burden on small workplaces were treated as major policy tasks.

In addition, the agency is expanding non-face-to-face services such as benefit applications, premium inquiries, and certificate issuance through mobile apps and online portals, and is also pursuing artificial intelligence-based document review assistance and linkage between accident prevention and rehabilitation using data analysis. As applications for industrial accidents related to musculoskeletal disorders and mental health increase due to aging and changes in industrial structure, prompt review and improved rehabilitation outcomes are becoming key indicators in institutional evaluation. Along with this, raising the rate of return to original jobs for injured workers, resolving regional disparities in rehabilitation infrastructure, and securing the fiscal soundness of industrial accident insurance are expected to be major issues in the future.