ST Unitas worker commits suicide
ST Unitas CEO Yoon Sung-hyuk
By Jhoo Dong-chan
ST Unitas has come under fire for forcing one of its employees to work excessively long hours, leading her to commit suicide.
The company is one of Korea's major operators of private learning institutes, which offer English, Chinese and other foreign language courses as well as various civil service exams.
The deceased, surnamed Chang, worked with ST Unitas between May 2015 and December 2017. Bereaved family members claimed Chang worked more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for 46 weeks. Her overtime work ratio was over 35 percent. She was with the company for about two years and eight months.
Chang had to take time off work due to the deterioration of her health after working excessive overtime, but ST Unitas continued such practices even after Chang returned from her leave in November 2017.
Her family claimed she was forced to write a letter of apology for no reason and participate in unwanted in-house meetings. The company even forced Chang, a vegetarian, to eat meat at a casual office dinner.
“I understand workers at startups work overtime relatively often compared to conglomerates, but ST Unitas clearly crossed the line with her,” Chang's family said.
“She had suffered from depression because of excessive overtime at ST Unitas. She didn't even have time to visit a doctor.”
Observers blame Chang's death on the company's obsession for profit.
According to its audit, ST Unitas reported 315.7 billion won ($295.1 million) in sales in 2016, skyrocketing from its 2012 sales of 19.8 billion won. In 2014, the company enjoyed a 977.2 million won net profit for the first time.
ST Unitas, however, has since failed to continue its momentum as it posted a 39.6 million won net loss in 2015 and a 959.8 million won net loss in 2016.
Despite worsening profitability, ST Unitas continued expanding by acquiring a controlling interest in the U.S. company The Princeton Review last year. According to investment bank analysts, ST Unitas reportedly paid about 100 billion won to secure management control of the major U.S. education firm.
While the company concentrated on its external growth, ST Unitas workers are allegedly subject to overtime work even without pay as part of the company's efforts to reduce labor costs.
“The company said workers voluntarily participate in its in-house events on weekends. They said the work on the weekend is voluntary, but their participation influenced their annual reviews. And they were not paid for weekend work,” Chang's family said.
ST Unitas' performance obsession also received heavy criticism last year when the company was found to mobilize its workers in rigging online public opinions against rival companies.
Of five ST Unitas workers indicted for irregularities, one was given a one-year prison sentence with a two-year suspended sentence.