Seoul establishes hotline to prevent sexual harassment

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to establish sexual harassment hotline. The Korea Time file

By Kim Hyun-bin

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) said it will prevent sexual harassment at its workplace by establishing a hotline and implementing stricter disciplinary measures.

Those who are guilty of sexual offenses will not be able to hold key positions for several years.

The SMG unveiled this plan which it calls “Personnel transfers for office sexual harasser.”

The move is in line with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon's call to crack down on sexual harassment in the workplace.

“Preventing sexual harassment and assault is key to making sure there is no inadequate handling of the situation. The victims should be isolated from the harasser. We need to provide strong follow-up measures,” Park said in a press statement

The plan highlights several preventive measures, which include isolating victims from the harasser; the extension of joint responsibility to administrators; personnel transfer; and giving rewards to departments that boost gender equality.

Seoul plans to operate both the sexual harassment hotline and a verbal violence report system.

All the reported cases will be handed over to the city's civic human rights department for investigation.

Disciplinary measures will be made according to the investigation results.

Sexual harassers will be ousted from their jobs, or sent to a different department.

If the sexual harassment case is serious, the harasser will be removed from their position prior to the investigation.

As soon as a report is received via the hotline, the victim and the harasser will be isolated to prevent further damage.

Even if a harasser gets promoted prior to the offense, he will not be able to hold a key post such as team leader or director of a department.

“Every person that is penalized for sexual harassment and verbal violence will be excluded from incentives,” said the city.

“Administrators will be excluded to take any key positions for three years.”

The city plans to extend the responsibility of administrators.

Currently, team leader-level administrators are jointly held accountable for sexual harassment cases within their departments, but it will be extended to include directors.

The city plans to establish a system that manages the sexual harasser's data, which will include a report of their wrongdoings.

The data will be kept until the person retires to make sure the victim and the harasser are separated from working in the same office.

If they have to work under the same roof, the city plans to get prior approval from the victim.

“We will prevent sexual harassment and verbal violence in our office. We will do our best to protect the victims,” said the city.