Lotte Department Store apologizes for asking customer to remove union vest

A department store employee speaks to a customer wearing a Korean Metal Workers’ Union vest at the food court of Lotte Department Store’s Jamsil branch in southern Seoul, Wednesday. The video, showing the store employee asking the customer to remove his vest, appeared on social media Wednesday and garnered over 8,900 retweets as of Sunday. Captured from X

Lotte Department Store issued a formal apology Saturday after one of its security staff asked a customer wearing a labor union vest to remove it at a food court, sparking backlash over discrimination against union members and labor activists.

In a statement posted on its website, Lotte said it was "deeply sorry for the inconvenience caused" when a guest wearing a vest with labor-related lettering was told to remove it at the company’s Jamsil branch in southern Seoul on Wednesday.

"This was an inappropriate action, and we sincerely apologize to the customer who may have felt discomfort," CEO Jung Hyun-seok said in the apology. "We will thoroughly review all processes related to our customer service and do our utmost to prevent any recurrence."

The incident occurred around 7 p.m., when members of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union's (KMWU) Goeje-Tongyeong branch tried to enter the department store’s basement restaurant area wearing union vests. Security personnel stopped the group, saying the vests might make other customers uncomfortable. When the union members refused to remove them, additional staff approached and repeated the request.

Videos of the confrontation went viral on social media platforms such as X, formerly Twitter, prompting public criticism. Lotte later said the security staff had acted "out of concern for customer comfort," but admitted the response was excessive.

The incident triggered outrage from the public and labor activists. Groups of labor activists visited Lotte’s Jamsil and other branches after the incident, entering restaurant areas wearing union vests and chest placards with labor slogans as they ordered food and drinks, in protest of what they called discriminatory treatment of organized labor.

According to KMWU’s Geoje-Tongyeong branch, managers from the Jamsil store met the affected union members in Sejong City, where they were on a business trip Friday, to apologize and listen to their demands.

The group demanded that Lotte issue an official public apology, not penalize the security contractor or its guards, provide human rights training for security staff and take companywide measures to prevent similar incidents at all branches.