Hyundai Card responds to company sexual assault allegations

Hyundai Card, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, has made an official acknowledgement of a claim of sexual assault among its employees, while disputing allegations that the company mishandled the incident.

Hyundai Card posted an official response to the allegations Monday on its official Facebook account, after the alleged victim raised the issue on Saturday via a blog post that went viral online.

In the post, an ex-employee of the company claimed that she was raped by a co-worker in May and reported the incident to officials responsible for internal audit. She claimed her case was turned down as a “personal matter” on which no company measure needs to be taken.

In Monday’s official statement, Hyundai Card refuted the claim, quoting the company’s “track record of rigorous response to safety issues in the workplace over the past decade.” The statement said that the firm conducted a thorough internal inspection on the alleged sexual incident case, on top of an investigation by the police.

The last sentence of the statement read, “Hasty judgements that our company was remiss in protecting our employee, strike us as utterly dismaying.”

The company’s response, meanwhile, drew some angry reactions on Facebook where the statement was posted, with some criticizing the company’s choice of words as being “inappropriate” or “condescending.”

The debate over Hyundai Card coincides with controversy surrounding another sexual assault case at furniture company Hanssem that has even prompted calls for a boycott of their products.

(mjk625@heraldcorp.com)