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Nearly six in 10 workplace harassment reports meet passive measures: Survey

Published: 31 Aug. 2025, 16:28

An illustrated image of an office worker quitting his job [JOONGANG ILBO]

Nearly 60 percent of people who reported workplace harassment to authorities saw less-than-satisfactory responses, a survey showed Sunday.

According to the survey conducted on 1,000 office workers from June 1 to 7, 14.2 percent of respondents experienced workplace harassment in the past year and reported it to the authorities.

Of them, 59.2 percent said the response from — or measures taken — by the authorities seemed "passive."

Reasons for describing the response as passive included "inappropriate remarks, such as slighting the informant or taking the company's side" at 51.7 percent, "putting pressure to drop the report or reach an agreement" at 37.9 percent and "insincere investigation" at 31 percent.

The survey was commissioned by Gapjil 119, a civic group dedicated to combating power abuse by individuals in higher positions, and conducted by the polling agency Global Research.

Gapjil 119 said labor inspectors' handling of reports is an indicator of the effectiveness of labor laws and respect for labor rights, and called for strengthening their training, increasing hiring and revising work guidelines.

Yonhap