직장 내 괴롭힘･성희롱 ‘업무’요건의 쟁점 및 개선방안

Abstract

Harassment and sexual harassment at workplaces often involve multiple stakeholders within the workplace and occur in complex manners. Recently, there has been a growing debate in disciplinary committees and personnel review boards on how to interpret the scope of “work.”. For example, if a perpetrator’s behavior occurs outside of working hours or away from the workplace, it becomes contentious whether such actions can be recognized as workplace harassment or sexual harassment in the workplace. While perpetrators may acknowledge their behavior was wrongful, they could argue that it lacks work-relatedness, claiming it does not constitute prohibited harassment or sexual harassment under the law, and therefore cannot be subject to employer sanctions or disciplinary actions. In practice, there is a tendency to broadly interpret work-relatedness, but the legal and logical basis for such interpretations remains underdeveloped. Accordingly, efforts are needed to more clearly redefine and apply the ‘work-relatedness’ requirement for workplace harassment and sexual harassment at work. Recognizing this need, this study examines key issues surrounding the work-relatedness requirement in cases of workplace harassment and sexual harassment and suggests legislative and policy improvements. For workplace harassment in general, the study proposes including “deviant behavior”, modifying references to work-relatedness in the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s guidelines, and establishing new criteria for determining “deviant behavior” and “the appropriate scope of work”. For workplace sexual harassment, this study proposes removing the requirement for “abuse of authority”, specifying the scope and content of work-relatedness in legal provisions, and including criteria for determining work-relatedness in the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s manual. Through these improvements, the legal framework for addressing workplace harassment and sexual harassment is expected to mature further, ensuring safer and more respectful work environment for many employees.