As we approach the final quarter of 2023, as in the previous year, we would like to provide you with a brief overview of mandatory training that should be completed by the end of the year.
- Most employers in Korea are required by law to provide company-wide training on the following topics: prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace, improvement of employees’ disability awareness, and workplace safety and health. Employers that fail to provide such training can be subject to sanctions, including administrative fines. In July 2023, the Ministry of Employment and Labor identified a certain companies’ failure to provide mandatory training on the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace and subsequently ordered corrective actions for these violations, which was reported in the media.
- We recommend that employers also provide training to prevent workplace harassment. Although this is not a mandatory training item required under the Labor Standards Act, it is an increasingly common issue raised in the workplace, and there remains a great deal of confusion among employees as to what constitutes “workplace harassment” under Korean law. Regular training can help clarify misunderstandings and prevent issues before they arise. In practice, many employers provide workplace harassment prevention training together with the legally mandated workplace sexual harassment prevention training. We also note that the legally required training on workplace safety and health needs to include a workplace harassment component, as it must cover “matters concerning the prevention and management of health problems caused by workplace harassment, customers’ verbal abuse, etc.” (Enforcement Decree of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.). Conducting a separate workplace harassment training session can fulfill this aspect of the workplace safety and health training obligation and is often more effective than including it as merely one component of the workplace safety and health training.
- Employers must also provide personal information protection (data privacy) training to the officers and employees who process and handle personal information, which should be differentiated based on the size of business, the number of personal information items held by the company, the nature of work, etc. Although violation of this requirement does not entail sanctions, it is still a mandatory training item, and can be critical in preventing privacy-related issues. This is particularly important since Korea has strict privacy laws with increasingly aggressive enforcement.
- Finally, employers that have established a retirement pension plan are required to provide retirement pension training. With the exception of the first training session, employers can simply post or publish training materials in the workplace or on the company intranet in a manner that is accessible to officers and employees at all times per the Enforcement Decree of the Retirement Benefits Act.
We hope you find the above information helpful. Based on extensive experience and expertise, Kim & Chang is prepared to offer various training services tailored to the clients’ specific needs and goals, including but not limited to all of the topics outlined above.