Office workers don’t trust companies’ measures against sexual violence: survey

A large percentage of Korean office workers replied they don’t trust their companies’ human resource teams in responding to sexual violence in the workplace, a poll result showed Monday.

Some 6,017 office workers nationwide participated in the survey, conducted from March 21-25. Of the respondents, 76.6 percent replied that they “don’t trust” human resource teams to respond appropriately to workplace sexual violence.

The survey was conducted by Blind, an app where office workers debate their companies’ issues anonymously. Over 1.3 million people from 25,000 companies across Korea are registered on the app. 

Only 10.1 percent replied that they have “average faith” in human resources departments’ measures, while 13.3 percent replied that they “trust” the departments to act accordingly.

The mistrust for companies’ internal measures against sexual violence was stronger among women.

Some 80 percent of female respondents expressed their mistrust, compared to 73 percent of men.

In terms of industries, those working in shipbuilding expressed the highest mistrust for their companies’ post-sexual violence measures, followed by the construction, defense, automobile and telecommunications industries.

Those working at startups expressed the most trust in their companies’ policies.

In a similar survey conducted late 2017, less than 30 percent of respondents said they mistrusted their companies’ post-sexual violence measures, according to Blind.

The sudden hike in skepticism indicates a heightened awareness of sexual violence among Korean office workers following the #MeToo movement. It also points to relatively slower developments in corporate policy, reports say.

Blind branched out to the US’ Silicon Valley in 2015, working with companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple, reports say.

By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)