The bullying cases include ‘yelling and humiliation in front of others’, ‘insults with nicknames calling out appearance or behavior’, ‘insults and sarcasm’ and ‘not giving important information related to work’. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent investigation has revealed that many flight attendants at Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc. have experienced bullying in the workplace, not only from management, but also from their direct supervisors.
An activist from the human rights movement network Baram announced the results of an investigation into bullying in the workplace for flight attendants on December 13 during a forum held at the National Assembly Members’ Hall on Tuesday.
The survey was conducted online from July 23 to 30 with the participation of 299 Korean Air workers and 222 Asiana employees.
Among the respondents, 77.9 percent said they had experienced bullying in the workplace at least once.
Among those who said they had been bullied, 64.02 percent said they were bullied less than once a month, while 7.1 percent said that they were bullied once a week and 6.8 percent said every day.
The types of violence experienced at work were verbal abuse (61 percent), sexual harassment and violence (38 percent) and physical violence/threats (11 percent). Work-related bullying accounted for 71 of the cases.
In 67 percent of the cases of sexual harassment and violence, the perpetrator was an immediate superior, and 15 percent of the offenders were customers.
The bullying cases include ‘yelling and humiliation in front of others’, ‘insults with nicknames calling out appearance or behavior’, ‘insults and sarcasm’ and ‘not giving important information related to work’.
One of the activists said, “The bullying of flight attendants was not limited to abuse and violence by management. There were cases were team information was not distributed and the use of leave or sick leave was prohibited.”
“Flight attendants at Korean Air said frequent scheduling changes due to lack of manpower was most difficult to deal with, while flight attendants at Asiana said regulations on appearance were most onerous hardest.”
“The airlines are not operating their businesses democratically,” he added.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
