업무상 정신질환으로 산재를 신청한 노동자의 질환서사 연구

This study examines how workers come to perceive their illness as work-related, and how they construct their illness narrative through the process of workers' compensation. 5 workers who claimed for their claims to the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service were interviewed. Results show that workers regarded their mental illness as work-related because they thought the onset of their illness was due to workplace bullying. They considered a claim for workers’ compensation the only way to seek social legitimacy. However, in the process of proving that their mental illness was caused by work, they experienced controversies surrounding their illness and hurdles exist in the workers’ compensation system. As a result, the controversies over work-related mental illness and an unchanged work environment put workers in a situation where they had to continue to prove their social legitimacy even after approval of the claims and the recovery of their mental health was inevitably delayed. Above all, they ended up perceiving that approval of occupational disease depends on chance. It would be required to make active institutional measures for workers who suffer from work-related mental illness.