”Add me as a friend on Kakao”... Sexual crimes in the workplace on the rise

It has been found that the number of people who have experienced sexual harassment and sexual violence in the workplace has increased since last year. Beyond the formalization of laws and systems, efforts to eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace must be undertaken in parallel.
The civic group Workplace Power Harassment 119 and the Beautiful Foundation commissioned Global Research to conduct a survey of 1,000 people aged 19 or older nationwide from May 31 to June 10.
According to a survey on "experience of being a victim of sexual crimes in the workplace," 20.8% of respondents said they had been sexually harassed in the workplace within the past year, up from last year (14.2%).
・20.8% of respondents said they had experienced sexual violence, up from the previous 13.8%. Although the revised Stalking Punishment Law and the Stalking Prevention Law have been enacted and are currently in force, the number of victims of stalking in the workplace is still high.
The harm is also continuing. The percentage of people who answered "I have experienced stalking in the workplace in the past year" remained the same, from 15% in 2023 to 16% in 2024.
The victim, Ms. A, said, "Whenever I wear jeans, my coworker compliments my appearance, saying that I look even prettier when I wear jeans, and for the past few months, he has been asking me to add him as a friend on Kakao."
There were more female victims of sexual crimes in the workplace than male victims. 26.1% of women said they had experienced sexual harassment, 7 percentage points higher than men (19.1%).
The percentage of victims of sexual harassment and sexual violence was also different, at 19.7% for women and 10.6% for men. A Workplace Power Harassment 119 representative said, "In particular, most perpetrators are lower-ranking employees.
"Unlike men, women were relatively more likely to be victims of violence by lower-ranking employees," the ministry said.
Although there are laws in place to deal with the crime, it was found that about half of the victims are reluctant to report it. Of the 226 victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, 55.8% said they "put up with it without reporting it, or didn't notice it."
In fact, one source said, "I was sexually harassed by my manager and reported it, but the company is the same age as me, so I thought I would be more sympathetic to him because of this."
"They asked me if I could become a better employee," he said. "When I refused and asked for a proper investigation, that's when they started asking me to quit and bullying me."
Workplace Power Harassment 119 suggested that in order to solve these problems, it is important to improve awareness beyond efforts at the legal and institutional levels.
Labor lawyer Kim Se Jeong of the 9th said, "It is difficult to change the reality just by improving the legal system. Changes in organizational culture and the perceptions of each member of the organization are also necessary. In particular, women may be in a higher position than perpetrators, but they may not be able to work.
"Since women can become victims of workplace violence, it is urgent to improve workplace culture to promote gender equality."