Employment · Guide
Workers' Compensation in Korea: Benefits, Deadlines and Suing Your Employer
How Korea's industrial accident compensation insurance works for employees, including foreign workers: what COMWEL pays, claim and appeal deadlines, and when you can also sue the employer.
Two separate routes after a work accident
If you are injured at work in Korea, there are two separate routes. The first is industrial accident compensation insurance (산재보험), run by the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (COMWEL, 근로복지공단). It pays fixed statutory benefits once the injury is recognised as work-related, whether or not the employer was at fault. The second is a civil damages claim against the employer, and in some cases a principal contractor or an insurer. That claim needs fault, such as a failure to take required safety measures, but it can cover losses the insurance does not.
A criminal case for occupational negligence causing injury (Criminal Act, Article 268) or a breach of the Occupational Safety and Health Act may run alongside. It can punish the employer or managers, but it does not itself pay you.
Who is covered, including foreign workers
The Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act applies to every business that employs workers, except businesses excluded by Enforcement Decree (Article 6). For a business that is covered by law, the insurance relationship arises on the day the business starts, whether or not the employer has registered (Premium Collection Act, Article 7). You file the claim with COMWEL yourself; benefits are paid on the claimant's application (Article 36(2)).
Nationality does not matter. The Supreme Court held that a foreign national who was working for wages under the employer's direction was a worker entitled to medical care benefits even though the person did not hold a status of stay permitting employment (Supreme Court 94Nu12067, 15 September 1995).
What the insurance pays
For disability benefits, grades 1 to 3 are paid as a pension only, grades 4 to 7 as a pension or a lump sum at the claimant's choice, and grades 8 to 14 as a lump sum. A worker who is not a Korean national and lives abroad when the claim arises receives a lump sum (Article 57(3)). The grade-12 lump sum, for example, is 154 days of average wage.
Average wage is generally the total wages paid in the three months before the event divided by the number of calendar days in that period (Labor Standards Act, Article 2(1)6). For 2026, the statutory maximum and minimum daily compensation bases are KRW 268,299 and KRW 82,560 (Article 36(7); Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice No. 2025-84). They adjust the average wage used to calculate benefits; they are not the amount paid for every day or every benefit. The minimum does not apply to temporary disability benefit or the injury-disease compensation pension, which have their own rules, including protection for low-income workers, and funeral benefits are outside this rule.
| Benefit | What it covers | Key rule |
|---|---|---|
| Medical care benefit (요양급여) | Treatment of the work injury | Paid by COMWEL to the treating institution, within the scope the Act covers |
| Temporary disability benefit (휴업급여) | Income lost while you cannot work for treatment | 70% of average wage per day; not paid if the period is 3 days or less (Article 52); a separate rule applies to low-income workers (Article 54) |
| Disability benefit (장해급여) | Permanent impairment after treatment ends | Average wage × the days fixed for grades 1 to 14 in Annex 2 (Article 57) |
| Caregiving, survivors', funeral and vocational rehabilitation benefits | Other listed losses | Article 36(1) |
Deadlines
- Benefit claims: most rights lapse if not exercised within three years; disability, survivors' and funeral benefits and the pneumoconiosis pensions have five years (Article 112). Check the starting date for the particular benefit.
- Review of a COMWEL decision: within 90 days of learning of the decision (Article 103(3)); re-review within 90 days of learning of the review decision (Article 106(3)). You may also go to court directly. A cancellation lawsuit generally must be filed within 90 days of learning of the decision and within one year of the decision. After a timely review or re-review, the 90 days run from service of the written review decision, while the one year runs from the date of that decision; the one-year limit has an exception for justifiable grounds (Administrative Litigation Act, Article 20; Article 111). Check the deadline for the route you choose.
- Civil damages against the employer in tort: three years from when you knew of the damage and who caused it, and ten years from when the tort was completed by the actual occurrence of damage, which is not necessarily the date of the harmful conduct (Civil Act, Article 766; Supreme Court 2004Da71881). For an injury that is apparent at once, the three years usually run from the injury, not from the disability grading; latent injuries and unforeseeable later losses are assessed separately.
- A claim framed as breach of the employer's contractual duty to protect your safety is, absent special circumstances, subject to the ten-year civil limitation period, even if the employer is a company (Supreme Court 2018Da270876, 19 August 2021).
What the insurance does not pay
The insurance pays no compensation for pain and suffering (위자료). Temporary disability benefit replaces 70% of average wage, and the disability lump sum is a fixed number of days rather than the earnings you lose until retirement age. If the employer was at fault, the gap and pain-and-suffering damages can be claimed from the employer.
The employer is released from civil liability only up to the amount of insurance benefits you have received for the same loss (Article 80(2)). In June 2025 the Supreme Court held that benefits are deducted first from the matching item of loss and only then is the employer's share of fault applied, even where no third party was involved and the injured worker was partly at fault (Supreme Court 2023Da297141, 26 June 2025).
Subcontractors and the principal contractor
If you work for a subcontractor, the principal contractor must take the safety and health measures needed to prevent accidents to the subcontractor's workers at its workplace (Occupational Safety and Health Act, Article 63), and the Supreme Court has held that a construction principal owes that duty to a subcontractor's workers (Supreme Court 2007Da82059). Where a construction project is carried out through successive contracts, the principal contractor is generally treated as the insured employer for workers' compensation purposes, although an approved subcontractor may instead be treated as the employer (Premium Collection Act, Article 9(1)). Check the project's insurance arrangements, because they affect how benefits are deducted in a claim against a contractor.
Protection from dismissal and pressure not to claim
An employer may not dismiss an employee during leave for treatment of a work injury and for 30 days afterwards (Labor Standards Act, Article 23(2)). The exceptions are where the business cannot continue and where the employer has paid the lump-sum compensation under Article 84 of the Labor Standards Act, which is a specific statutory payment, not an ordinary settlement; it is deemed paid if, three years after treatment began, you are receiving an injury-disease compensation pension (Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, Article 80(4)). Separately, an employer must not dismiss or otherwise disadvantage you because you applied for benefits (Article 111-2).
Employers must not conceal an industrial accident. A death, or an injury or illness requiring three or more days off work, requires an industrial accident report within one month (Occupational Safety and Health Act, Article 57; Enforcement Rule, Article 73), and a death or other serious accident must also be reported without delay (Article 54(2)). The right to insurance benefits cannot be assigned or offered as security (Article 88(2)). If an employer offers to pay treatment costs privately (공상처리) instead of a claim, read any agreement before signing: money paid in place of insurance benefits can reduce what COMWEL later pays (Articles 80(3) and 89).
If your visa depends on the job
A workers' compensation claim does not by itself give you a right to remain in Korea. If your status of stay depends on your employment, ask the immigration office about your options while you are being treated. This office's work does not include immigration applications.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreign worker claim workers' compensation in Korea?
Yes. The Act covers workers regardless of nationality, and the Supreme Court has held that a foreign national actually working for wages was entitled to benefits even without a status of stay permitting employment (94Nu12067).
My employer never registered for insurance. Can I still claim?
Yes. For a business covered by law, the insurance relationship arises on the day the business starts, regardless of registration (Premium Collection Act, Article 7). You can file with COMWEL yourself.
If I receive workers' compensation, can I still sue my employer?
Yes, if the employer was at fault. The employer is released only up to the benefits received for the same loss, and pain-and-suffering damages are not covered by the insurance at all.
How long do I have to claim?
Three years for most insurance benefits and five years for disability benefits (Article 112). A tort claim against the employer must be brought within three years of knowing the damage and who caused it (Civil Act, Article 766), which is usually counted from the injury; a claim for breach of the employer's contractual duty to protect your safety generally has ten years (Supreme Court 2018Da270876).
How the initial review works
- Send a short description, your current country and time zone, and any deadline. Please wait for document-transfer instructions before sending identity documents.
- The attorney checks the requested scope and any conflict of interest, then proposes the review, fee and expected delivery date by email. A video consultation in English can be arranged by appointment.
- The agreed initial review includes an English summary of the issues, missing documents and recommended next steps. Depending on the scope, it may also include a document checklist or a list of steps to take with each authority.
- Fees depend on the records and questions to be reviewed. Any filing, translation, certification, government charges or continuing work is identified separately in the proposal. Sending an inquiry does not start a paid engagement.
Scope and sources
General information on the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act and related Korean law in force on 19 October 2026, and the Supreme Court decisions cited. COMWEL decides whether an injury is work-related and what grade applies; whether an employer is liable in damages depends on the facts and evidence.
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General information on Korean law. Advice for a particular matter requires a separate review and agreed engagement.