[2025 National Assembly Audit] 40% of Sports Instructors Suffer Harassment... 70% of Perpetrators Are Administrative Office Staff

Most Cases Involve Power Harassment and Verbal Abuse
60% Say They "Simply Endured It"

Sohn Sol

Four out of ten community sports instructors have experienced workplace harassment, but more than half chose to endure it rather than report it. In most cases, the perpetrators were administrative office staff.

Assemblywoman Sohn Sol, together with the Public Solidarity Union Sports Association Division of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, released the results of a survey conducted on October 29 targeting 301 community sports instructors from 67 local government sports associations nationwide. According to the survey, 39.5% said they had personally experienced human rights violations. Additionally, 43.9% reported witnessing their colleagues being victimized.

The most common type of abuse was abuse of power (52.1%), followed by workplace harassment (41.8%) and sexual harassment or assault (6.2%). Specifically, verbal abuse accounted for 32.2%, unfair orders for 22.6%, and exclusion from work or group ostracism for 21.9%.

Administrative office staff were the main perpetrators, accounting for 69.4% of cases. Executives of the sports associations followed at 17.4%, and fellow instructors at 12.5%.

However, six out of ten victims (59.4%) said they "just endured it." Only 40.6% formally raised the issue with the sports association.

The organizational response was also insufficient. Only 9.2% of cases led to a fact-finding investigation or disciplinary committee. In 44.3% of cases, "no action was taken," and 19.1% reported "secondary harm" where the victims suffered further disadvantages.

Instructors cited the undervaluation of labor (52.7%) as the main cause of human rights violations. The most urgent measure, according to 59.8%, was "improving treatment and raising status."

At the National Assembly audit that day, Assemblywoman Sohn emphasized, "Community sports instructors are being targeted for harassment within the power structure centered on local sports association administrative offices," adding, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee must expand their fact-finding investigations and introduce prevention manuals."

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