[The Hwankyung Ilbo] The Ministry of Employment and Labor (Minister Ahn Kyung-deok) announced on July 27 (Tuesday) the results of special labor supervision conducted on Naver Co., Ltd., where a worker's death occurred due to bullying at work.

Since the death of a worker on May 25, the special supervision has been conducted based on the judgment that an in-depth inspection of the overall organizational culture and working conditions, including bullying at work, is needed.

In particular, considering the importance of the issue, a special labor supervision team was formed around the Central Regional Employment and Labor Administration and the Seongnam branch office from 69 to July 23.

The special supervision focused on violations of labor-related laws, focusing on harassment at workplaces under the Labor Standards Act.

In particular, along with investigation into workplace bullying related to the death of workers, it also checked the proper operation and organizational culture of bullying reporting channels in-house, and also conducted in-depth inspections of labor-related laws such as the Labor Standards Act. 

Poor operation of bullying reporting channels in the workplace: 

A workplace harassment investigation of dead workers confirmed that they had been constantly verbally abused and insulted by their bosses, intentionally excluded from the decision-making process, and had been under excessive work pressure.

It is believed that such behavior constitutes harassment in the workplace, which has caused mental and physical pain beyond the appropriate range of work by utilizing the status or relationship advantage prohibited by the Labor Standards Act.

Under the Labor Standards Act, users should conduct investigations to confirm the fact without delay if they are aware of the occurrence of bullying in the workplace, but Naver has not conducted investigations to verify the facts.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor also checked whether the bullying reporting channel in the company is operating properly during the special supervision process.

As a result of Naver's inspection of whether the revised Labor Standards Act on workplace bullying was implemented on July 16, 2019, it was confirmed that some reports were handled unreasonably, such as admitting that it was an issue equivalent to workplace bullying.

In fact, he has "disapproved" his immediate boss' insulting remarks, excessive work assignment, and forced work during the holidays, even though it constitutes harassment in the workplace. 

In addition, external agencies, which were asked to investigate the intentional exclusion of their immediate supervisors, suggested that further investigation was needed, but there were cases where they disapproved without further investigation.

In particular, the first case was found to be an unfavorable treatment, considering that it was poorly investigated and treated as not a harassment in the workplace, but as a temporary department unrelated to the work under the pretext of urgently separating measures. 

Explanation, assault, and sexual harassment in the workplace: 

In a survey to diagnose organizational culture such as bullying in the workplace, more than half (52.7 percent) of respondents said they had suffered bullying at least once in the past six months.

In particular, 10.5 percent of the respondents said they had suffered repeated harassment at work more than once a week in the last six months.

There was a fact that a teammate was slapped in the face with outsiders, and an external agency investigating bullying in the workplace offered an "exemption" opinion on the perpetrator, but the company punished him for "honesty (8 months), and the perpetrator later returned to work, while the victim resigned.

In addition, 44.1 percent of respondents who have experienced bullying at work said they "mostly tolerate it alone," while only 6.9 percent said they "appeal to their bosses or the counseling department in the company."

As for the reason for enduring alone, 59.9 percent of the respondents said, "It is because it is not solved even if we responding."

According to the survey results, Naver urgently needs to improve its overall organizational culture.

In a survey on verbal abuse, assault and sexual harassment at work, some said they had suffered directly from verbal abuse, assault, and sexual harassment at work, or had seen or heard of other colleagues' damage. 

8.8 percent of the participants in the survey on verbal abuse and assault said they experienced damage, and 19 percent said they had seen or heard damage from their colleagues.

Regarding sexual harassment in the workplace, 3.8 percent of the survey participants said they experienced damage, and 7.5 percent said they had seen or heard damage from their colleagues.

The government plans to separately guide abusive language, assault and sexual harassment at work in this survey so that they can be reported, and conduct a separate investigation if additional detailed reports are received after the special supervision. 

Unpaid overtime, nightly and holiday work allowance: 

In the past three years, it has been found that 8.67 billion won in bribes such as extended, night and holiday work allowances have not been properly paid to former and current employees.

It has been confirmed that 12 female workers who are pregnant have been forced to work overtime in the past three years, even though they cannot be allowed to work overtime.

It has been confirmed that workers who have not been pregnant for a year have been ordered to work at night and on holiday without the approval of the Minister of Employment and Labor.

In addition, basic labor-related laws such as violations of overtime limits, violations of written stipulations on working conditions for fixed-term workers, failure to conduct sexual harassment prevention education in the workplace, and omission of wage register entries have been found. 

Send all cases to prosecution: 

The Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to send all violations of labor-related laws, such as treatment of reported harassment in the workplace, overdue wages, and violation of protection of pregnant women, to the prosecution and impose fines.

The company plans to help improve Naver's corporate culture by establishing and submitting measures to improve overall workplace bullying and preventing recurrence of workplace bullying, while revealing Naver employees' findings on workplace bullying and diagnostic results.

In the case of IT industries such as Naver, as long-term work problems have been frequently pointed out, the R&D sector will appropriately utilize flexible work systems such as flexible, selective, and discretionary work systems, and actively guide employees to achieve work-life balance.

"Naver is Korea's leading IT company and preferred by many young people, but the results of the special supervision showed that there are many things that need to be improved regarding bullying in the workplace," said Kim Min-seok, head of the labor policy office.

In particular, as many colleagues in the special supervision process said, "It's time to try not to happen again, saying that he has a strong sense of responsibility for the deceased and is a person who silently performs difficult tasks." 

He then stressed that both labor and management should actively cooperate with the management to create a more reasonable and horizontal organizational culture that employees hope and meet the expectations of the people.

"In particular, the management's willingness and government's efforts are needed to eradicate bullying in the workplace," he said. "We will cooperate with related ministries to improve corporate culture while strengthening our guidance, investigation and labor supervision to eradicate bullying in the workplace."