Top 3 Workplace Pains for Korean Employees: "Workplace Bullying, Job Insecurity, Wage Power Abuse"

"Non-regular workers who do not join unions face higher employment insecurity risk"

On the 16th, office workers are heading to work wearing outerwear on Sajik-ro 8-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

A survey revealed that workplace harassment, job insecurity, and wage exploitation constitute a significant portion of the suffering experienced by office workers.

According to the information released on the 29th by the civic group Workplace Gapjil 119, emails from workers complaining about 'harassment' accounted for 284 cases (69.8%, overlapping responses). This is based on an analysis of 407 verified email reports received by the group from January to March.

Among the 284 emails reporting 'harassment,' the most common type was 'ostracism and discrimination,' with 188 cases (66.2%). This was followed by 'assault and verbal abuse' with 113 cases (39.8%), and 'insult and defamation' with 110 cases (38.7%).

Job insecurity types such as 'disciplinary dismissal' ranked second with 118 cases (29.0%) out of 407, and 'wage exploitation' ranked third with 97 cases (23.8%). The group stated, "Non-regular workers or those not joining labor unions are more likely to experience job insecurity."

Additionally, the group disclosed a survey conducted by the public opinion research firm Embrain Public from December 4 to 11 last year, targeting 1,000 office workers. According to the results, the unemployment rate over the past year was three times higher for non-regular workers (20.5%) compared to regular workers (6.8%). Among workers not affiliated with a union, the unemployment rate was 13.3%, more than twice that of unionized workers (5.5%).

Workplace Gapjil 119 explained, "Non-regular workers and employees of small and medium-sized enterprises, who are vulnerable in the workplace, lack labor unions to protect themselves and thus cannot escape the suffering caused by workplace gapjil, job insecurity, and low wages."

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