Amendments to the Occupational Safety and Health Act:
"Emotional Labor Workers" incorporated into the Regulatory Framework
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In recent years, Korea has experienced a proliferation of worker categories that – due to the nature of their duties and services – placed certain workers beyond the reach of various protections provided by the Korean employment and labor laws. One such worker category is the “emotional labor workers” (i.e., individuals who provide “emotional labor” where they must suppress their genuine emotions and display organization-approved emotions when performing their duties, often when interacting with customers). Emotional labor workers are known for having to endure psychological and emotional distress as part of their work, which may lead to severe depression and other adverse mental and physical health impacts. Examples of emotional labor workers include customer service representatives and call-center staffs.
In recognition of the hardships faced by emotional labor workers, an increasingly strong voice to improve their work environments emerged, leading to a pervasive view that employers must initiate proactive steps to protect the health of these workers. Notwithstanding, purely employer-driven measures provided limited remedies while substantive legislative changes lagged behind.
However, on March 30, 2018, the National Assembly of Korea passed legislative amendments (effective on October 18, 2018) to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSHA”) that seek to protect emotional labor workers. More specifically, the amendments impose a duty on employers to protect the health of their employees who are engaged in emotional labor.
The major aspects of the duty and legislative changes are summarized below.
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Notable Amendments to OSHA
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| Employer’s Duty to Prevent Health Impairment of Employees. Employers are required to take necessary measures to prevent workers who sell products or provide services to customers in person or via other communication channels (collectively, “Service Workers”) from suffering health impairments from the “abusive acts” of customers/clients. “Abusive Acts” include customers’ acts of verbal or non-verbal violence as well as any other acts that cause an unreasonable degree of physical or emotional harm to Service Workers.
The law does not yet define the types of measures that the employers must implement. However, we expect that more guidance will be provided through changes to the Enforcement Regulation to OSHA in the upcoming months.
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Employer’s Duty and Service Worker’s Rights upon Occurrence of Health Impairment. Employers must take necessary measures to provide relief to Service Workers who suffered health impairments from the abusive acts of customers/clients. Examples of such relief measures include, but are not limited, to granting temporary suspension from the relevant work or full reassignment. Further types of measures are expected to be enumerated in the upcoming changes to the Enforcement Decree to OSHA.
Please note that failure to take the necessary measures may result in an administrative fine not exceeding KRW 10 million (approx. USD 10,000), and affected Service Workers may request his/her employer for relief measures upon experiencing customers’ abusive acts.
Further, employers may not terminate or take any actions to disadvantage a Service Worker because such relief was requested. Upon violation of this law, the employer may face imprisonment up to one (1) year or a criminal fine not exceeding KRW 10 million (approx. USD 10,000).
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| Potential Impacts on Your Business
| We anticipate that the latest changes to OSHA would impact businesses in the service industries, especially those engaging workers whose duties involve enduring emotional labor. If companies employing emotional labor workers fail to implement measures designed to protect the employees from this specific type of injury, we may see a major uptick in the number of collective civil claims and criminal complaints against employers alleging violations of the new statutory duties.
Accordingly, employers are strongly advised to make necessary adjustments in the wake of the recent legislative changes by (i) assessing the occupational environment of Service Workers to understand areas for improvement and (ii) preparing response manuals to protect workers and to handle related contingencies, before the amended OSHA comes into force.
Lee & Ko boasts a successful track record in handling emotional-labor litigations and advising clients on measures to mitigate risks of claims by emotional labor workers. With extensive experience in this area of practice, we have provided practical solutions tailored to the needs of each client. Should you need any assistance in this area of law, please do not hesitate to contact Lee & Ko.
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