Seoul registers ‘record’ levels of treatment for workplace bullying

This has been confirmed by data released by the Korean Agency for Occupational Safety and Health. Between 2022 and 2024, Kosha conducted 16,607 counseling sessions, with figures rising sharply over the last three years. The cases involve serious accidents at work, suicides of colleagues, bullying, harassment, and sexual violence.

Seoul (AsiaNews) - In South Korea, the issue of bullying in the workplace is emerging with growing concern, with an increasing number of employees and professionals reporting “record levels” of trauma or psychological distress.

This is confirmed by the latest data provided in recent days by the government, starting with the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency (Kosha), which yesterday released the findings of its network of centers across the country.

The agency conducted 16,607 counseling sessions between 2022 and 2024, with annual figures rising sharply over the last three years. In 2023, 6,757 counseling sessions were conducted, an increase of 56.4% compared to 2022 and 22.2% compared to 2023.

The centers, first established in Daegu in 2018 and now expanded to 23 locations across the southern Korean peninsula, offer free psychological support to workers who have suffered trauma, including critical issues caused by serious accidents at work, suicides of colleagues, workplace bullying, or sexual harassment or violence.

Workplace accidents, including serious injuries, were the most common reason for seeking psychological support in 2023, with 3,214 sessions, almost half of the annual total. Counseling related to bullying and sexual harassment followed closely with 2,311 cases, almost double the 1,156 recorded in 2022.

Government-reported cases of workplace bullying also rose steadily, from 8,961 in 2022 to 11,038 in 2023 and 12,253 in 2024, suggesting a direct link with the growing demand for trauma support services.

Reports of abuse by workers, including verbal and physical assault, rose from 72 cases in 2022 to 202 in 2024, although this figure marks a decline from the 589 cases reported in 2023.

In addition, the overall increase in the use of post-traumatic counseling was also driven by an increase in “other” cases, such as trauma resulting from illnesses including COVID-19, which rose from 84 in 2022 to 1,030 in 2024.

Trauma assistance programs cover not only primary victims directly involved in workplace accidents, but also “secondary victims, such as colleagues or witnesses, who are psychologically affected by the events,” as Kosha experts explain in a statement.

The issue of bullying and discrimination on various grounds at the social level was a factor that, in the past, particularly affected North Korean refugees who left the Kim dictatorship in search of a better life in the South.

This was often a difficult journey characterized by lower pay, blocked career advancement, and a persistent climate of “surveillance” that continued even years after fleeing the North.

However, over time, the phenomenon has spread to different strata of society, even schools, with a growing number of complaints that have prompted the authorities to intervene with restrictions on university entrance exams.

• South Korea
• bullying
• work
• education
• violence
• trauma
• society