"King Crab Sawara" 30s Employee's Extreme Choice Due to Severe Harassment... "Cover-up After Biased Investigation Favoring Management"

Reported Workplace Harassment but Company Conducted Biased Investigation
Perpetrator's Acquaintance Hired Certified Labor Attorney and Leaked Confidential Information
Employment Minister: "An Absolutely Unacceptable Incident Occurred"

In relation to the incident last January where a staff member in their 30s at Jangsu Nonghyup took an extreme measure due to workplace harassment, the Ministry of Employment and Labor conducted a special labor inspection and found most of the allegations to be true.

The Ministry decided to impose criminal charges and fines for the violations, while also strictly conducting planned supervision over Nonghyup and Suhyup.

On the 16th, the Ministry stated, "As a result of the special labor inspection at Jangsu Nonghyup, it was confirmed that the deceased was subjected to workplace harassment by multiple superiors and unfavorable treatment due to reporting it," adding, "a total of 15 violations of labor-related laws were identified."

(Photo by Getty Images Bank)

Earlier, on January 12, a staff member in their 30s at Jangsu Nonghyup, Mr. A, took an extreme measure in the parking lot in front of Nonghyup. It is known that the suicide note mentioned the hardship caused by workplace harassment.

The Ministry's investigation revealed that since last year, multiple superiors had made disparaging remarks to the deceased or ordered him to "buy king crabs," confirming workplace harassment continued until shortly before his death.

After the deceased reported the harassment to management, he was subjected to unprecedented unfavorable treatment prohibited by the Labor Standards Act, such as being required in writing to follow unfair work orders and submit written explanations.

At that time, the management transferred the deceased to another department but assigned him to a computer station without access to the internal network and did not assign any duties. Despite the return request already being processed and no tasks remaining, written work orders were issued to "handle unreturned stock," and he was forced not to write excuses.

Furthermore, after receiving the harassment report, management appointed a certified labor attorney who was an acquaintance of the perpetrator and concluded through a biased investigation that it was not workplace harassment, even leaking confidential information learned during the investigation.

The Ministry explained, "This was uncovered through forced investigations such as searches and seizures of those involved."

Additionally, Jangsu Nonghyup violated labor laws by not paying overtime wages for early arrivals, resulting in over 400 million won worth of 'free labor,' and violated the 12-hour weekly overtime limit a total of 293 times.

The Jeonju branch of the Ministry of Employment and Labor took legal actions including six criminal charges and imposing fines totaling 67 million won for labor law violations.

For the four perpetrators of workplace harassment, the Ministry demanded disciplinary action from management and required submission of the results. The certified labor attorney who participated in the biased investigation is also planned to be disciplined for violating duties of diligence and confidentiality under the Certified Labor Attorney Act.

Minister Lee Jung-sik pointed out, "It is absolutely unacceptable in the labor field for management to conduct a biased investigation into a young worker's workplace harassment report, conceal the facts, and instead impose disadvantages, and we view this very seriously."

He added, "We will also strictly conduct the ongoing planned supervision of Nonghyup and Suhyup and provide detailed results to the public," emphasizing, "the government will thoroughly protect the labor rights of vulnerable groups such as youth through strict labor inspections against illegal acts regardless of labor or management."

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