TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A McDonald's in Kaohsiung has been ordered by a court to pay NT$4.72 million (US$155,000) in compensation to the family of a worker who died after working for a long period of time in a walk-in freezer.

A 23-year-old man surnamed Li (李) was employed as a part-time worker at McDonald's on Yixin 1st Rd in Kaohsiung City's Qianzhen District in 2021. After lifting a large quantity of goods over an extended period in the walk-in freezer, he suddenly fainted and was eventually sent to a hospital, where he died five months later.

Li's family accused McDonald's of negligence and demanded NT$10.05 million in compensation. The Kaohsiung District Court determined that because Li had carried 1.1 metric tons of French fries in and out of the freezer over a short period of time, the fast food chain should bear the majority of the responsibility for expenses and should pay his parents NT$4.72 million, reported UDN.

The court verdict pointed out that Li was a part-time worker where he would start a six-hour shift at 6 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. On May 29, 2021, Li carried French fries and hash browns from the 5th-floor freezer to the kitchen at the Yixin branch.

At 9 a.m., Li suddenly passed out in the freezer and his father received a call from the store manager and asked him to take his son to the hospital. However, after other employees moved Li to the first floor, he was taken to the hospital by taxi.

He would then spend the next five months in the hospital before dying. The cause of Li's death was "septic shock," which had been caused by "spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage and communicating hydrocephalus" complicated by a "central nervous system infection."

Li's parents attributed their son's death to injuries sustained while working at McDonald's. They believed the company had failed to employ adequate safety measures in the workplace, which led to their son's frequent entry and exit from the freezer and ultimately his death and NT$10.05 million in accompanying medical expenses, funeral expenses, parental care expenses, and non-property damages.

During the hearing at the Kaohsiung District Court, McDonald’s claimed that safety measures had been put in place at the workplace, and the employees also fully assisted in sending Li to the hospital. It pointed out that Li died of a hemorrhage of the deep basal ganglia of the brain, which was a spontaneous hemorrhage, not the result of an acute injury or short-term or long-term pressure load.

McDonald's alleged that his condition was not the result of an occupational accident-induced injury, and he did not qualify for occupational accident compensation.

Initially, the Bureau of Labor Insurance submitted Li's medical records to occupational medicine specialists, who believed that the cause of Li's death was "spontaneous bleeding, not caused by slipping and falling, and there was no acute injury or short-term or long-term stress load, and it was determined to be a non-occupational injury." However, Li's family refused to accept the findings and filed an application to dispute the findings with the Ministry of Labor, which was rejected by the ministry.

However, Li's parents refused to relent and sought a re-examination by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The center entrusted a physician at Kaohsiung Medical University to re-evaluate the case and confirmed that on the day of Li's illness, he was exposed to large temperature differences 48 times over the course of 40 minutes and 46 seconds.

The doctor determined that Li had spent 29 minutes and 14 seconds in a low-temperature environment and concluded that Li Nan's illness was caused by heavy labor under temperature extremes while on the job. The Kaohsiung District Court accepted the assessment by the physician.

According to McDonald's regulations for working in refrigerated areas, it is stipulated that employees must wear protective clothing to keep them warm, and this clothing was available at the branch. However, Li failed to wear this protective clothing, prompting the court to assign 30% of the blame to Li.

To cover medical care, funeral expenses, non-property damages, and other expenses, while deducting the 30% of responsibility placed on Li, the court awarded his father NT$2,487,445 and his mother NT$2,233,800 for a total of NT$4,721,245.