"5,000 Reports of Workplace Harassment Law... Only 1 in 5 Workers Receive Relief"

Less than 20% of Substantial Relief through Improvement Guidance and Prosecution Referral
Many Cases of 'Verbal Abuse' and 'Unfair Personnel Actions' in Small Workplaces with Fewer than 50 Employees
No Woong-rae: "Law Should Be Applied from the Victim's Perspective and Target Companies Expanded"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Although there have been as many as 5,000 reports filed in the one year since the implementation of the Workplace Harassment Prohibition Act, it has been revealed that less than one in five people have actually received relief.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to Roh Woong-rae, a member of the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the total number of reported cases during the one year from July last year, when the Workplace Harassment Prohibition Act was enforced, to the end of July this year reached 4,975.

By industry, the highest number of cases occurred in manufacturing (928 cases, 18.7%), followed by business and facility management (728 cases, 14.6%), health and social welfare services (704 cases, 14.2%), and wholesale and retail trade (526 cases, 10.6%).

By workplace size, 2,894 cases were reported in workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, accounting for 58.2% of the total. Large companies with 300 or more employees reported 852 cases (17.1%). Workplaces with 100?299 employees and 50?99 employees reported 623 cases (12.5%) and 606 cases (12.2%), respectively.

Photo by Asia Economy DB

By type of harassment, verbal abuse accounted for about half of the total with 2,434 cases (48.9%), followed by unfair personnel actions (1,227 cases, 24.7%) and ostracism/gossip (711 cases, 14.3%).

Next were non-assignment of work (167 cases, 3.4%), coercion (158 cases, 3.2%), assault (158 cases, 3.2%), discrimination (135 cases, 2.7%), surveillance (89 cases, 1.8%), and orders for personal errands (62 cases, 1.2%).

The problem is that most of the reported cases have not received actual relief. Excluding the 374 cases currently being processed, nearly half of the remaining 4,600 cases?2,156 cases (46.8%)?were withdrawn.

Actual relief measures such as improvement guidance were given in 848 cases (18.2%), and referral to the prosecution occurred in 53 cases (1.2%), which is less than 20% of the total.

Additionally, one out of every three reported cases occurred before the law was enacted or in workplaces with fewer than five employees, which are excluded from the law’s application, and were simply closed. In other words, even if a case is reported as workplace harassment, less than one in five people actually receive relief.

Assemblyman Roh stated, "For the Workplace Harassment Prohibition Act to be effective, stricter application from the victim’s perspective and active consideration of expanding the scope of applicable companies are necessary."

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