The amended Labor Standards Act (“LSA”) with new provisions regulating workplace harassment has gone into effect on July 16, 2019.  The amended LSA is the first regulation that expressly defines and sets forth fundamental principles to regulate workplace harassment, and applies to any workplace with five or more employees.  The Ministry of Employment and Labor (“MOEL”) has released a manual on identification, prohibition, and countermeasures against workplace harassment (the “Manual”) on February 22, 2019 to provide further guidance on the issue.  

The amended LSA defines workplace harassment as “an act of an employer (or business owner) or employee (or worker) that causes physical or mental suffering or worsens the working environment of another employee/worker by taking advantage of his/her status or relationship within the workplace beyond the appropriate scope of work.” (Article 76, Section 2 of the LSA).

Additionally, the amended LSA specifies the employer’s obligations regarding workplace harassment as follows: 

• Prohibit workplace harassment (both employer/business owner and employee/worker);
• Promptly conduct an investigation to confirm the facts if the employer/business owner is notified or is made aware of workplace harassment;  
• Take appropriate measures to protect a victim of harassment, such as changing the workplace or allowing the victim to take paid leave¹;
• Obtain the victim’s opinion regarding the measures to be taken against the harasser, and take necessary action, such as disciplinary action or changing the workplace of the harasser; 
• Ensure protection against disadvantageous measures, such as dismissal, for the victim-employee/worker or the employee/worker who reports the occurrence of workplace harassment; and 
• Specify in the Rules of Employment the measures to be taken in the event of an occurrence of workplace harassment. 

The amended LSA employs a broad definition of workplace harassment and imposes no penalties, such as fines, for violation of the relevant provisions.  However, the amendment still encourages employers to self-regulate workplace harassment by mandating that they include provisions on prohibition of and countermeasures against workplace harassment in the rules of employment and report such changes to the MOEL. 

The amendment is a bold statement by the government to express its resolve to address the controversial workplace harassment issue.  Thus, stronger regulatory measures are likely to follow and we recommend taking the following measures. 

• Clarify the meaning of “workplace harassment” at your workplace by taking into account the work environment, culture, and other relevant circumstantial factors, and reflect in the company’s policies²;
• Conduct an internal audit to check the current compliance level to the new workplace harassment provisions; 
• Establish a prevention/countermeasure system focused on workplace harassment; and 
• Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the company’s HR/management system as workplace harassment issues may arise on all fronts within HR/management.