Confirmed 20 Cases of Sexual Harassment and Wage Arrears Including Sexual Assault at 'Jeil Yakpum'

Ministry of Employment "Operation of Forced Investigation Support Team for Handling Reported Cases"
Dedicated to Arrest, Detention, and Search of Employers

Exterior view of the Ministry of Employment and Labor building in Sejong Special Self-Governing City. (Photo by Asia Economy DB)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on the 11th that it conducted special inspections on Jeil Yakpum and the Jinan-gun Welfare Center for the Disabled, which caused controversies such as sexual assault against female employees and workplace harassment, uncovering 20 cases of misconduct including sexual harassment and wage arrears. The ministry plans to strengthen management by operating a forced investigation support team that arrests, detains, and conducts searches of business owners during the handling of reported cases.

According to this year's comprehensive labor inspection plan, the Ministry of Employment and Labor conducted a special inspection on the emergency patient transport company 'Shinsegae 911' last month and has now inspected these two institutions. The inspection revealed 15 violations of labor-related laws at Jeil Yakpum and 5 at the Jinan-gun Welfare Center for the Disabled.

First, Jeil Yakpum was found to have committed misconduct such as sexual harassment, workplace harassment, and wage arrears. An anonymous survey responded to by 866 out of 945 employees showed that 11.6% of respondents had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace. Additionally, 53.9% reported being harassed at least once in the past six months. Moreover, over the past three years, 341 current and former employees were owed more than 1.5 billion KRW in overtime, night, holiday work allowances, annual leave pay, and severance pay.

The Jinan-gun Welfare Center for the Disabled also committed violations including workplace harassment, wage arrears, failure to provide written notice of working conditions, and failure to conduct sexual harassment prevention education. Over the past three years, 27 current and former employees were owed approximately 16 million KRW in annual leave pay, weekly holiday allowances, and other payments.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to conduct supplementary investigations into labor law violations such as wage arrears identified during the special inspections and then transfer all cases to the prosecution. The ministry will require the organizations to develop and publicly disclose plans to improve organizational culture related to workplace harassment and sexual harassment, recognizing the urgent need for overall organizational culture reform. The plans must be submitted to local labor offices, which will also provide special training. If additional reports of workplace sexual harassment are received, separate investigations will be conducted.

During the special inspections, the ministry conducted anonymous surveys on workplace harassment and sexual harassment and plans to conduct special inspections without exception if similar cases occur. To this end, all local offices will be informed of these cases. The 'Forced Investigation Support Team' has also been activated, newly established in eight local labor offices. This team is responsible for arresting, detaining, and conducting searches of business owners who maliciously violate the law.

Kwon Kisub, Director of Labor Policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, stated, "We will respond more strictly to cases where workers are harmed by those in superior positions in the workplace and will continuously monitor the field. We will strengthen special inspections and operate the Forced Investigation Support Team in the handling of reported cases."

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