Naver CEO vows to overhaul workplace environment

Naver CEO Han Seong-sook speaks during an audit session of the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee, Wednesday. Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Naver CEO Han Seong-sook apologized Wednesday for incidents of workplace bullying that led to the suicide of an employee in May, vowing to improve the working environment of the nation's largest internet platform company.

“I was very shocked by the incident, and I apologize to the employees I work with, to the deceased and the bereaved family members. I also apologize to my colleagues for not taking care of them properly,” Han said during an audit session held by the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee.

“I apologize for my firm not being a socially responsible platform company,” the CEO added.

This year, the internet giant has been criticized for being embroiled in a series of scandals surrounding its work environment and governance issues. She was summoned to the audit as a witness to elaborate on the incidents.

In May, a Naver programmer who was found dead near his home, left a note complaining about his excessive workload and workplace abuse with the names of several people on it.

After the incident, Naver said it was actively responding to workplace bullying by launching an in-house risk management system and hiring an external consulting service.

However, Rep. Noh Woong-rae of the Democratic Party of Korea said Naver only took disciplinary action in one of 18 workplace harassment cases since the government revised the so-called Workplace Anti-Bullying Law in 2019.

As a result of special labor supervision conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, six out of 18 workplace harassment cases were reported through in-house channels since July that year, when the law took effect, Noh said. But of the six, only one was recognized as workplace harassment and resulted in disciplinary action, he added.

“Naver's management is largely responsible for the widespread harassment and the company's workplace bullying,” the lawmaker said. “Consideration for people in the algorithms of the nation's No. 1 IT company was missing from the beginning.”

After the incident in May, Naver started to improve its in-house working environment and culture. In a conference call on the company's second quarter performance, Naver announced that the company's main goal this year was creating a healthy organizational culture.

“During the special supervision, we learned that there were many shortcomings inside our company. I was shocked about the death of the deceased, and I think parts that need changing should be changed. I also apologize to the bereaved family for what I had to apologize for. I am well aware of the disappointment of my colleagues. We will try to improve responsibly,” Han said.

In regard to workplace bullying at Naver's affiliates, she said, “Subsidiaries will change their working environment to a similar level to that of Naver once Naver changes its working culture.”

“First of all, we will focus on changing Naver's entire culture,” she added.