DATELINE SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in in November instructed aides to take steps to revise laws on workplace harassment in the civil service, citing a lack of legal stipulations on compensation for victims in the field of public administration. The instruction came after a newly recruited civil servant at the city government of Daejeon, 160 km south of Seoul, was found dead at the person’s home in September, about three months after the official was assigned to the post, reports Yonhap News Agency. Family members of the deceased have claimed the civil servant had been suffering from overwork, unfair instructions and bullying at work. Mr Moon told aides that workplace harassment is a “humanitarian issue”.

The President called for a revision of relevant laws because there is a lack of legal guidelines for an occupational accident compensation system for civil servants suffering from workplace harassment, according to presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee.

In 2019, a law aimed at preventing harassment in the workplace took effect in South Korea. Under the law, workplace harassment is defined as an act of incurring physical or mental suffering or a worsening of the work environment by employers or workers using their status or power to behave beyond the scope of working norms.