40% of Korea's workers who reported bullying faced retaliation: survey

Some 40 percent of South Korean workers who reported workplace bullying said they faced retaliation from their superiors afterward, a survey by a local civic group showed Wednesday.

Workplace Gabjil 119, an organization that assists victims of workplace abuse, surveyed 1,000 workers across the country in the second quarter of this year about bullying at the workplace. Of the 305 respondents who said they had been bullied, only 12.1 percent said they had reported the case to the company or labor union, and 2.6 percent said they had notified related government agencies.

A full 40 percent of those who reported their case to higher authorities were treated unfavorably at work afterwards, according to the survey.

The civic group's officials pointed to the passive responses of the government and relatively light punishments for bullies as likely leading to retaliation for reporting workplace bullying. "In cases in which retaliation for reporting workplace bullying occurs, government policy gives perpetrators 14 days to change their behavior, and only registers the incidents as crimes when they do not take necessary action. It effectively lets them off the hook as long as they rectify their misdeeds," the group said.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor then countered that Korea's Labor Standards Act stipulates criminal punishment of up to three years or a 30 million-won ($22,500) fine, for those who disadvantage people reporting workplace bullying.

"(The ministry) immediately commences the process for criminal punishment if the person who reported the case or the employee who was bullied in the workplace wants (the bully) to be punished," the ministry said in a statement.

Nevertheless, Workplace Gabjil 119's survey indicated that an overwhelming number of employees are reluctant to report workplace bullying. Some 57.7 percent of those bullied at work said they simply let things slide, while 19.3 percent said they actually quit their jobs.

When asked why they did not take action, 47.1 percent of those respondents said, "It didn't look like things would get better even if I did something about it," while 31.8 percent said, "I was afraid of any disadvantages that I might face in future personnel matters."