The Death of a New Office Worker in his 20s... The Industrial Accident Admitted to 'Helping in the Workplace'

[Anchor]
Last year, there was a sad incident in which a young man in his 20s who was suffering from severe "workplace harassment" took his own life.

Recently, the young man's death was recognized as an industrial accident.

However, the company is still avoiding responsibility.

Reporter Song Se-hyuk reports.

[Reporter]
25-year-old Jeon Young-jin, who suffered constant bullying from his boss A at his first job.

In May last year, less than two years after joining the company, he ended his life on his own.

Jeon's cell phone had a recording of the call containing the verbal abuse and threats of his boss A.

[Recording of the phone call between the boss A and the late Jeon Young-jin: If my eyes turn around, I'm going to chase you and kill you all. (Yes, I see. Brother.) This is XXX.]

Over the course of two months, 86 cases of verbal abuse, 16 cases of intimidation, and 4 cases of assault were confirmed through phone recordings and CCTV.

However, it was difficult for Jeon to even report bullying.

This is because the company Jeon worked for is a workplace with fewer than five employees, and has not been subject to the Labor Standards Act, which prohibits "workplace harassment."

The bereaved families applied for an industrial accident, and the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation recently recognized it as an industrial accident.

[Park Hye-young / Labor attorney for the bereaved family: At work, it seems that the bullying at the company greatly affected the victim's extreme choice.]

Earlier, the court sentenced him to two and a half years in prison in the second trial, saying that the harassment of his boss A had a significant impact on Jeon's death.

In response, the company reportedly said that it was not aware of the problem between employees due to a lot of outside work.

Reporters tried to contact each other several times, but the company declined to respond.

[Jeon Young-ho / The late Jeon Young-jin: A user didn't know in a small business with less than 5 employees? I think this is a lie.

In the wake of this incident, there is a growing voice that the legal system needs to be improved to prevent bullying in the workplace even at workplaces with fewer than five employees.

I'm YTN's Song Sehyuk.



Filmmaker: Kim Dong-cheol

Design: Baek Seungmin