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| Posco Center Building in Seoul / Courtesy of Posco |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Posco has issued an apology based on the allegations that a female employee at its main plant in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, had been sexually assaulted by coworkers over more than three years.
Posco Vice Chairman Kim Hak-dong issued a statement on the case late Thursday. "We sincerely apologize to the victimized employee and her family for the recent unsavory sexual ethics violations within the company, and we are taking the matter seriously. We will fully cooperate with the police investigation, and do our best to ensure that there is no unfairness to the victim by conducting a thorough investigation on those involved and holding them accountable."
Earlier this month, a female employee filed a complaint with the police against four male colleagues in the same department, claiming that they sexually assaulted her multiple times. It is reported that she is the only woman in the department, which has more than 50 employees, and that the multiple sexual assaults occurred over a period of three years.
The company then dismissed the head of the department and decided to separate the victim from the accused until the police complete their investigation. However, Posco has been criticized for neglecting to protect the victim after she first reported the case to management last December.
"In order to prevent a situation like this from happening again, we invite external experts to provide additional group training on the topic of workplace sexual harassment for all employees and provide a better level of awareness training on in-house workplace sexual harassment issues. We will come up with a fundamental reform plan and implement it," Kim said.
Since making its declaration of ethical management in 2003, Posco has continuously carried out in-house ethical management campaigns such as sexual harassment training, sexual violence awareness education and workplace harassment prevention education. In addition, the ethical awareness of executives and employees has risen due to strict standards, although all the education was not enough to prevent the recent sexual assault case.
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