A staged photo depicting workplace sexual harassment. [Getty Images Bank]
A staged photo depicting workplace sexual harassment. [Getty Images Bank]

Allegations have emerged that a Gyeonggi Province office employee was excluded from work duties in retaliation for refusing a colleague's sexual advances.

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Choo Mi-ae issued a special directive Friday, ordering that protecting the victim be treated as the top priority.

According to Gyeonggi Province, a post appeared on "Waglewagle," an anonymous internal communications board at the provincial office, in which the author described receiving sexual demands from a colleague in the same department and being sidelined from work after refusing them.

The author said the colleague told her, in effect, that she should quit if she would not meet with him — which she interpreted as both a sexual demand and a threat.

She also said that after rejecting the advances, she was deliberately excluded from work assignments and that negative remarks about her were spread to other employees, amounting to retaliatory measures and secondary harm.

The author further claimed that colleagues who questioned or refused to follow the employee's instructions also faced work exclusion and gapjil, "workplace abuse," and that some ultimately left the team following the conflict.

The author noted that both she and the other employee are married, and said she had not made the matter public because she wanted to protect her family. She added, however, that she continues to work on the same team and suffers ongoing mental stress and discomfort.

As the controversy grew, Gov. Choo issued a special directive Friday, instructing officials to "respect the victim's wishes above all else and handle the matter carefully but firmly" in response to the sexual misconduct allegations raised within the provincial office.

Choo ordered officials to thoroughly block all direct and indirect secondary harm — including exposure of the victim's identity, personal information searches and the spread of malicious rumors — and to spare no effort in protecting the victim through professional counseling and psychological treatment.

She also directed that the human rights officer report any such incidents directly to the governor immediately, that an independent and objective investigation be conducted to support the victim, and that a zero-tolerance policy be applied in disciplining the perpetrator.


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