"Andar Faces 'Unfair Dismissal' Controversy Over Sexual Harassment Victim's Firing Due to Alleged Incompetence"

Shin Aeryeon, CEO of Andar
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Shinwon Yoon] Shin Aeryeon, CEO of Andar, a well-known domestic yoga wear company, has expressed her position following claims by a female employee who alleged she was unfairly dismissed after exposing sexual harassment.

Recently, A (35), a former Andar employee, revealed that she was sexually harassed at the company last year and was unfairly dismissed after making the incident public.

According to A, in September last year, a male employee forced inappropriate physical contact during a drinking party, and at a workshop, a male employee intruded into the accommodation where A was staying, resulting in sexual violence. After raising the issue within the company, she claims she was treated unfairly.

A stated, "I was sexually harassed by a senior male employee during the probation period before regular employment," and "After reporting this to the company, I was excluded from work and then notified of my dismissal."

In response to the controversy, Andar stated, "We held a personnel committee and took disciplinary actions: one month of unpaid leave for the employee who forced physical contact and a three-month pay cut for the employee who forcibly entered the accommodation."

On the 27th, CEO Shin Aeryeon clarified on her Instagram that A’s dismissal was unrelated to the sexual harassment incident. Shin said, "Due to poor evaluations in job responsibilities such as planning educational curricula, organizing, and training instructors, the education manager was judged to lack professionalism and experience, leading to contract termination. Since the evaluation was already underway before the incident occurred, it is unrelated to the sexual harassment issue."

Regarding the sexual harassment issue, she said, "As a fellow woman, I feel ashamed and sorry. We sincerely apologize for our failure to care for the victim’s situation," and "We will pay more attention to workplace human rights and a healthy organizational culture and do our best to ensure that such unfortunate incidents never happen again. We are currently discussing the establishment of related systems" to promise prevention of recurrence.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.