Foreign employees who experience workplace bullying (직장 내 괴롭힘) in Korea often assume it's simply how things work here, or that speaking up will only make their position more precarious. Since 2019, the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법) has treated workplace bullying (직장 내 괴롭힘) as a distinct legal violation, separate from sexual harassment, with its own definition, a mandatory employer investigation duty, and criminal penalties for retaliating against someone who reports it. Not knowing this law exists is exactly how foreign employees end up tolerating conduct they don't have to.

→What Actually Counts as Workplace Bullying Under the Law

The Labor Standards Act defines workplace bullying (직장 내 괴롭힘) as using one's position or relationship advantage in the workplace, beyond what is appropriate for work, in a way that causes physical or mental suffering to another employee or worsens their work environment. In practice, this covers a wide range of conduct sometimes dismissed as "just how the boss is" — excessive scolding or humiliation in front of coworkers, deliberately excluding a foreign employee from communication channels or information needed to do the job, assigning an impossible workload or, conversely, no work at all, spreading rumors, or organized exclusion sometimes referred to as "gapjil" (갑질). The common thread is a power imbalance used to make someone's working life harder than the job itself requires.

→The Employer's Investigation Duty Isn't Optional

Once an employer becomes aware of a workplace bullying complaint — whether reported directly by the victim or by someone else — the law requires the employer to investigate promptly and fairly, take appropriate measures such as separating the parties or reassigning duties during the investigation, and discipline the perpetrator if the complaint is substantiated. The employer also has a duty to protect the confidentiality of everyone involved during the process. An employer who simply tells an employee to "work it out themselves" or ignores a written complaint is failing an obligation the law imposes directly on them, not just failing to be a good employer.

Retaliation Is a Separate Criminal Offense

Disadvantaging an employee for reporting workplace bullying — firing them, demoting them, cutting their hours, or otherwise retaliating — is not simply an unfair labor practice to be argued about later. It is a separate criminal offense under the Labor Standards Act, punishable by imprisonment or a fine, independent of whatever happens with the original bullying complaint. An employer who bullies an employee out of the company for having reported bullying in the first place has committed two separate violations, not one.

The law doesn't ask whether the bullying was intentional — only whether it happened, and what the employer did about it once they knew.

1Why Foreign Employees Get Talked Out of Reporting

Language barriers, uncertainty about whether the protection even applies to a foreign national, and fear of visa or contract consequences keep many foreign employees from reporting conduct that a Korean colleague in the same position might report immediately. The protection under the Labor Standards Act applies regardless of nationality or, in most cases, documentation status — the law protects the employment relationship itself, not just citizens. Being told "this is just how it works here" is not a legal defense available to the employer.

2How to Actually Report It

The first step is usually an internal complaint to the employer or HR department, which triggers the mandatory investigation duty described above. If the employer has no functioning internal process, ignores the complaint, or is itself the source of the bullying, an employee can bring the matter directly to the regional Employment and Labor office (지방고용노동청), which can investigate and order corrective action separately from any internal company process. Keeping a contemporaneous record — dates, specific incidents, and any witnesses — makes both routes significantly more effective.

→What to Actually Do

  1. Document every incident as it happens — dates, what was said or done, and who else was present.
  2. Submit a written complaint to your employer or HR so the mandatory investigation duty is triggered on the record.
  3. Know that retaliation is separately illegal — a demotion or dismissal after reporting is its own violation, not a normal consequence of speaking up.
  4. Escalate to the regional labor office if the employer doesn't respond or the bullying comes from someone the employer won't act against.