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A resident of Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, posts a sign on her door telling delivers workers “#LateisOkay”

The “Day without Deliveries,” which was devised to give a day’s rest to overtaxed delivery workers, is a day away. Last month, the Korea Integrated Logistics Association (KOILA) decided to designate Aug. 14 as an official holiday for delivery workers, guaranteeing them a three-day weekend through Aug. 16. Made in response to demands from the Taekbae (Delivery) Union, the decision comes 28 years after the courier industry was first created. Consumers have been signaling their solidarity through campaigns with hashtags such as #LateisOkay and #DayWithoutDeliveryOrders.

Already faced with harsh working conditions that prevent them from even eating proper meals during shifts, delivery workers have been pushed to their limits with the explosion in orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has consumers going out less frequently and consuming more online. A 2018 study by the Korea Transport Institute (KOTI) found workers clocking in an average of 12.7 hours per day and 25.6 days a month; the delivery volumes and working hours have reportedly increased greatly amid the pandemic.

The deaths of seven delivery workers from overwork this year surely bear some relation to these stats. The burden of courier labor has been made worse this summer by the heat and a historically long monsoon season. Heavy rains increase the time needed for deliveries while making driving more dangerous. The upcoming fall season is typically the year’s biggest period for delivery volumes. Under these circumstances, the Day without Deliveries truly offers the bare minimum guarantee of workers’ right to rest.

It is beautiful to see so many members of the public showing their support and joining in with their own promise to refrain from delivery orders. Delivery service users and some online shopping mall operators have designated Aug. 13 a “day without delivery orders,” making related posts and photographs on social media. This is motivated by concerns that if they carried on making orders as usual, the backlog could end up only increasing the workload. This is all the more meaningful as a campaign of active support and solidarity -- not simply accepting the inconvenience, but making sure that the Day without Deliveries has a real-life impact.

Labor unions representing delivery workers call for Aug. 14 to be a day of rest for couriers in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square on July 9. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)

Hopefully, consumer movements like this can be a starting point toward encouraging greater sympathy with workers and implementing practical improvements in working conditions. The government and industry should start by accurately assessing the situation for delivery workers so they can develop ways of achieving a better work-and-life balance for them. We can no longer ignore the ways in which people in “special forms of employment” are forced into working long hours. For right now, we need emergency measures to prevent overwork amid intense heat and heavy rains, to bring substitutes in to perform the task of sorting delivery items, which has been described by many as “free labor,” and to prevent companies from forcing workers to provide same-day deliveries.

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