By Choi Sung-jin



Four out of 10 Korean workers say they will not raise the issue if they fall victim to sexual harassment, for fear of "secondary damage," a recent survey shows.



The National Human Rights Commission of Korea, which conducted the survey, said it has recommended that the Ministry of Employment and Labor specifies rules that prohibit disadvantaging victims of sexual harassment, in the law on gender equality in employment and work-family compatibility support.



The commission carried out research last year to grasp situations concerning the secondary damage suffered by victims of sexual harassment and enhance relief measures. It polled 450 workers and had in-depth interviews with victims and officials responsible for settling grievances resulting from sexual harassment at public institutions and private firms.



As a result, 40.2 percent of respondents said they would "not raise an issue" if they are sexually harassed.



As the reason, 51 percent cited "unsavory rumors," followed by "disadvantage in work" (36 percent), "stress from handling procedure" (34 percent) and "fear of confronting perpetrators" (25 percent).



When the victims talked about secondary damage to people around them, 22 percent of respondents were told to "suffer patiently," 12.4 percent heard hints of disadvantageous treatment or psychological discouragement, and in 11.3 percent of cases, coworkers avoided being involved, telling the victims, "You are on your own."



Secondary damage occurred mainly when the victims made it public among colleagues (32.4 percent), when they formally filed a complaint (28.2 percent) and when probes began or conclusions were reached (27.1 percent).



People who inflicted secondary damage were perpetrators, superiors and colleagues, the survey showed.



As to why secondary damage occurred, 20.4 percent pointed to insufficient legal punishment of corporate managers' inappropriate handling of incidents, and lack of legal and institutional support for the protection of victims (19.8 percent).



"As long as the laws and regulations do not specify the concrete contents of disadvantageous actions taken by corporate managers or criteria on the scope of protecting victims as are the cases currently, there can arise problems concerning the interpretation of disadvantageous actions," the commission said. "Nor can the victims prove adverse actions against them for reason of sexual harassment."



Stressing that it is urgent to produce institutional devices to protect victims from secondary damage, the state agency said: "The government needs to enact laws and regulations to deal with problems related with secondary damage and enhance the expertise of officials dealing with such grievances."



