Janssen Korea hit for #MeToo claim
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Janssen Korea's factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Janssen Korea
By Park Jae-hyuk
Janssen Korea has recently been struck by a #MeToo claim, since a former female employee of the multinational pharmaceutical exposed she had severely suffered from sexual harassment prevalent in the company, industry officials said Sunday.
Saying she wants to reveal sexual and verbal violence that happened in Janssen Korea, the whistleblower sent an email to all employees of the drugmaker earlier this month, just before she left the place she had worked for seven years.
She enumerated cases of sexual molestation by doctors and senior employees in the email, but she did not mention names of the perpetrators.
According to the email, the woman faced sexual harassment on multiple occasions by some medical school professors, who were clients of the company when she was a saleswoman.
“One of the professors had other saleswomen seated on both sides of him and tried to hug them, whenever he drank alcohol,” the former Janssen Korea worker said in the email. “Another client suggested an overseas conference with him to me.”
She accused her colleagues in the company as well, saying some male employees touched her bottom and thigh, when they got drunk. She also said a male coworker shared a photo of a woman wearing a hanbok skirt without a top, during the Korean traditional holidays.
She also pointed out that both male and female employees made sexually discriminatory remarks.
“I am not the only one who faced such experiences. Many of my colleagues told me what they had experienced,” she said in the email. “I hope everyone in the company could be aware of violence existing like the air and could reflect on themselves.”
Janssen Korea reportedly notified the U.S. headquarters and Managing Director Jenny Zheng of the email, as well as holding an emergency meeting with the labor union.
The company said it will punish the perpetrators if the accusations turn out to be true.
The former Janssen Korea employee’s claim was in sharp contrast to a recent announcement of the Korea Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry Association (KRPIA).
Ahead of the International Women’s Day last week, the association comprised of international pharmaceuticals in Korea released a report on global drugmakers’ excellence in diversity, gender equality and work-life balance, compared to other businesses here.
KRPIA Chairman Avi Benshoshan also said, “Global pharmaceuticals will enhance diversity, gender equality and work-life balance, trying to spread the corporate culture throughout the Korean society.”
Multinational drugmakers, however, were embroiled in sexual harassment scandals, even before the #MeToo movement.
A male employee of Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical allegedly pushed his body against a female employee by force, during the Japanese capital-invested company’s overseas workshop last December. He was removed from his position and had his salary reduced, according to the company.
Pfizer Korea and Novartis Korea were also hit for alleged sexual molestations last year.
The former’s male executive had allegedly touched female workers’ bodies for years, after drinking alcohol. The latter was criticized for a female executive’s alleged sexual harassment against a male employee.
Pfizer Korea’s perpetrator was assigned to a different department, and Novartis Korea’s reportedly left the company.
A KRPIA executive confirmed the association is aware of the recent scandals.
However, she told The Korea Times it has yet to have any plan to come up with a countermeasure, saying, “We have no right to get involved in each company’s personnel and marketing.”