When a harassment complaint is filed at a Korean subsidiary, many foreign companies reach for the global playbook: escalate to headquarters HR, bring in an investigator, and apply the global code of conduct. In Korea, though, the employer’s response is governed by specific statutory duties that impose fines, criminal penalties for retaliation, and employee remedies before labor authorities. Global procedures that are standard elsewhere can conflict with Korean law on data transfer, confidentiality, and discipline. This article explains what Korean law requires and where foreign companies most often go wrong.
1. Two Legal Frameworks
Workplace harassment: Labor Standards Act
Since July 2019, the Labor Standards Act has prohibited workplace harassment, defined as conduct by an employer or employee who:
- uses a superior position or relationship (rank, seniority, or influence, not only formal hierarchy),
- beyond the appropriate scope of work,
- that causes physical or mental suffering or worsens the work environment.
These rules apply to workplaces with five or more employees. Employers with 10 or more employees must also include harassment prevention and response provisions in their work rules.
Sexual harassment: Equal Employment Opportunity Act
Sexual harassment is governed separately by the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act. It covers sexual conduct or remarks by an employer, superior, or co-worker that cause sexual humiliation or aversion, or that are linked to disadvantages in employment. Its key duties apply regardless of company size, including annual sexual harassment prevention training for all employees.
Scope beyond the office
Both frameworks can apply to conduct outside the office and outside working hours where there is a work connection, such as company dinners, business trips, and messenger app group chats like KakaoTalk.
2. The Employer’s Statutory Duties, Step by Step
The two laws impose broadly similar duties once a complaint is received or the employer becomes aware of possible harassment. No formal complaint is required.
① Investigate without delay
- The employer must carry out an objective investigation without delay.
- For sexual harassment complaints, the law specifically requires the investigation to be conducted so that the victim does not suffer further sexual humiliation, for example through insensitive questioning or repeated interviews.
② Protect the victim during the investigation
- Where needed, the employer must take protective measures, such as changing the victim’s workplace or granting paid leave.
- These measures must not go against the victim’s wishes. Transferring the complainant instead of the accused, against the complainant’s wishes, is a common mistake.
③ Take measures for the victim once harassment is confirmed
- If harassment is confirmed, the employer must take appropriate measures at the victim’s request, such as a change of workplace, reassignment, or paid leave.
④ Discipline the harasser
- If harassment is confirmed, the employer must take disciplinary or other necessary action against the harasser without delay.
- Before deciding on discipline, the employer must hear the victim’s opinion.
⑤ Prohibit retaliation
- The employer must not treat the complainant or the victim unfavorably, for example through dismissal, demotion, an unfavorable transfer, poor performance ratings, or exclusion from training.
⑥ Keep it confidential
- Everyone involved in the investigation must keep information learned during it confidential, except when reporting to the employer or responding to requests from the authorities.
Complaint or awareness → Prompt, objective investigation → Protective measures (with the victim’s agreement) → Findings → Victim measures and discipline (after hearing the victim) → No retaliation, confidentiality throughout
Key takeaway: Korean law regulates how the employer responds, not just the harassment itself. A company can be penalized for a defective investigation even where the underlying allegation turns out to be unfounded.
3. Penalties and Employee Remedies
Administrative fines
- Failing to investigate, take protective measures, discipline, or keep confidentiality: fines of up to KRW 5 million
- Harassment committed by the employer itself (for example, the representative director) or the employer’s relatives: fines of up to KRW 10 million
Criminal penalties for retaliation
Retaliating against a complainant or victim is a criminal offense under both laws, punishable by imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to KRW 30 million.
Remedies available to employees
- Complaints to the Ministry of Employment and Labor: An employee can file a complaint with the regional labor office, which may investigate and inspect the employer’s handling of the case.
- Labor Relations Commission (sexual harassment): Since 2022, victims of sexual harassment can ask the Labor Relations Commission for corrective orders where the employer failed to take required measures or retaliated. In some cases this can include compensation orders.
- Unfair discipline and dismissal claims: An accused employee who is disciplined or dismissed can challenge it as unfair before the Labor Relations Commission or in court.
- Civil damages: Victims can sue both the harasser and the employer for damages.
Key takeaway: A complaint creates exposure in two directions. If the response is too weak, the company is exposed to the complainant. If it is procedurally unfair or disproportionate, the company is exposed to the accused.
4. Where Global Practices Clash with Korean Law
Who investigates, and in what language
Global protocols often assign investigations to regional HR or overseas investigators, conducting interviews in English. In Korea, this raises practical and legal risks:
- Interviews conducted in a second language can produce inaccurate statements, and are easy to challenge later.
- The investigation must be objective. Where the accused is the Korean country manager or representative director, a local investigation run by people who report to them is not credible. Here, headquarters or external investigators should take over.
Transferring investigation files abroad
Investigation records contain personal information, often including sensitive information such as health or sexual matters. Under Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act, sending these records to headquarters overseas requires a lawful basis for cross-border transfer, such as consent or another statutory ground. It may also require notice to the individuals concerned. Routinely uploading Korean investigation files to a global case management system without reviewing this is a common compliance gap.
Legal privilege is narrower in Korea
Foreign companies often rely on attorney-client privilege to protect investigation reports. Korea does not recognize privilege as broadly as the United States or the United Kingdom. Investigation reports and legal opinions may be disclosed or seized in labor or criminal proceedings. Write reports on that assumption.
Recordings
Korean law generally allows a person taking part in a conversation to record it without the other party’s consent. Complainants often bring secret recordings of the harassment, and these are frequently admitted as evidence. Investigators should tell interviewees whether interviews are being recorded, and should never record conversations they are not part of.
“Zero tolerance” and dismissal
Global codes of conduct often call for immediate termination for harassment. Under the Labor Standards Act, dismissal requires just cause, must be proportionate to the misconduct, must follow the procedures in the work rules (such as a disciplinary committee and an opportunity to respond), and must be notified in writing. A dismissal that skips these steps can be found unfair, and the employee reinstated, even where the harassment itself was real.
Placing the accused on leave
Removing the accused from the workplace during the investigation is often appropriate. But an extended standby order without pay, or one with no clear end, can itself be challenged as unfair. Keep it reasonable in length and, generally, paid.
5. Practical Checklist
- Update the Korean work rules to include harassment prevention and investigation procedures that match Korean law. Make sure global policies do not contradict them.
- Provide annual sexual harassment prevention training to all employees, including executives and expatriates, and keep attendance records.
- Designate a Korean-speaking intake channel, and an escalation route to headquarters for cases involving senior local management.
- Prepare an investigation protocol: who investigates, interview procedures, protection of the victim, timelines, and documentation.
- Review cross-border data flows before investigation records are shared with headquarters.
- Check disciplinary procedures against the work rules before imposing any sanction.
- Monitor for retaliation for at least the following review cycle, including performance ratings and promotions.
6. Conclusion
In Korea, a harassment complaint triggers specific legal duties: a prompt and objective investigation, protection of the victim with the victim’s agreement, discipline after hearing the victim, strict confidentiality, and no retaliation. Failing at any step carries fines and, for retaliation, criminal liability. For foreign companies, the most common risks come not from ignoring complaints but from applying global procedures that do not fit Korean law: language, data transfer, privilege, and dismissal procedures.
A Korea-specific response protocol, prepared before the first complaint arrives, is the most effective protection.