hankyoreh

Various scenarios of workplace bullying

#1. “I work at a public welfare office with less than five employees. During each staff meeting, the head of the office threatens employees who tell outsiders about the office’s work, claiming he will ‘fire them.’ If other employees try to stop him from verbally lashing out, he swears and browbeats them. Going to work is like going to hell. I’ve heard that even the Ministry of Employment and Labor can’t help anyone suffering from workplace bullying at offices with less than five employees. What should I do?”

#2. “A team manager I was talking to about work made a mean insult. When I raised an issue with him, I was transferred to another department. My new boss at that department was friendly with my former boss, so now I’m a victim of gapjil (a Korean term referring to a person abusing their power) and I’m being bullied and treated like an outcast. I’ve made a formal complaint to the company about this, but they’ve responded that ‘there’s no problem’ and have not taken any action against the perpetrator. During the company’s investigation into my complaint, they only questioned what mistakes I had made.”

These are actual cases reported to the labor human rights organization “Workplace Gapjil 119” about workplace bullying during the first half of this year. July 16 marks the one-year anniversary of the implementation of a law banning workplace bullying (Clause 2, Article 76 of the Labor Standards Act). A survey recently found that seven out of 10 office workers do not think much has changed in terms of bullying at workplaces over the past year. This suggests that the ban has not become a solution to workplace bullying given that it fails to punish perpetrators and is blind to certain aspects of bullying at work.

At an event titled “An Open Forum on the Ban on Workplace Bullying: One Year Since Its Enactment” held by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korean Society of Labor Law on July 15, Lee Sang-hee, a professor in the Department of Consilience at the Korea Polytechnic University, revealed the results of a survey he conducted on 1,000 office workers. A total of 71.8% of the respondents to the survey said that there had been “no changes” in the level of workplace bullying at their offices since the enactment of the law banning workplace bullying. Only 19.8% of the respondents said that workplace bullying had decreased, while 8.4% responded that workplace bullying had actually increased.

The survey found that there was a similar proportion of respondents who said they would respond to workplace bullying either through official means or privately. A total of 21% of the respondents said that they would report acts of workplace bullying to the Ministry of Employment and Labor or other agencies, while 20.7% of the respondents said they would raise a complaint or submit a formal report internally. Meanwhile, 23% of the respondents said they would consult with work colleagues other than the perpetrator, 13% said they would quit, 8.4% said they would “not respond,” and 1.8% said they would request a transfer. The survey found that a majority of office workers still refrain from taking action against bullying at the workplace despite the new legislation. Regarding the survey’s results, Lee said, “There were a lot of respondents who worried about disadvantages they may face if they report bullying, despite the prohibition on punishing whistleblowers.”

The current ban on workplace bullying thus faces limitations for failing to consider this reality. The legislation does not include a clause that stipulates punishment for business owners who ignore a bullying problem, despite the fact they have a duty to investigate and take measures against workplace bullying. Moreover, workplaces with less than five employees – which are also susceptible to workplace bullying because of the lack of human resource departments and anti-bullying education – along with outsourced or contract laborers who suffer from bullying from their employers - are not protected under the law.

Ultimately, it all comes down to whether business owners and employees alike know whether bullying in the workplace has actually been banned. A survey conducted by Workplace Gapjil 119 earlier this month of 1,000 office workers found that those working for government agencies protected under the law (75.2%) and people working for companies with more than 300 employees (75.7%) know about the law banning workplace bullying. In contrast, only 40% of those working for companies with less than five employees knew about the law, according to the survey.

Oh Jin-ho, who is the executive director of Workplace Gapjil 119, told Hankyoreh that perpetrators of workplace bullying could face criminal charges if a clause is added to the law punishing workplace bullies. “This has led to concerns that there would be a stricter implementation of criteria for bullying in the workplace than now, but if there’s no punishment of the perpetrators then there’s no way to stop repeat workplace bullying in smaller companies,” he said, adding, “The 21st National Assembly needs to quickly revise the law at its first regular meeting given that there has been more interest directed at the issue of workplace bullying following, for example, the recent incident of violence involving now-deceased Choi Suk-hyon.”

By Seon Dam-eun and Kim Yang-jin, staff reporters

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