"Taking Female Employees to Room Salons"... Employee Who Exposed 'Workplace Bullying' Receives Reduced Sentence in Second Trial

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A former employee who posted on social networking services (SNS) an allegation that the CEO of content production company 'Celeb' took a female employee to a room salon received a reduced sentence on appeal after being fined in the first trial.

The Seoul Eastern District Court Criminal Appeal Division 3 (Presiding Judge Kim Chun-ho) on the 23rd overturned the original sentence of a 2 million won fine against former Celeb employee A, who was charged with violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (defamation), and sentenced him to a 1 million won fine.

In 2018, A posted on his Facebook a post exposing workplace harassment by then Celeb CEO Lim Sang-hoon.

The first trial court judged the part of the post stating, "On some days, we would all rush to a room salon as a group, and female employees had to choose a woman and sit next to her," as false information because the place was a 'karaoke' rather than a 'room salon.'

However, the appellate court stated, "The 'room salon' part pointed out the victim's inappropriate behavior of having female hostesses accompany the dinner gathering despite the presence of female employees," and added, "The act at the place is more important than the difference in location."

However, the appellate court, like the first trial court, judged the part written by A, "Even if the condition was not good, everyone had to drink at least three bottles of soju before leaving," as false information. The first trial court stated, "There seemed to be some coercive drinking methods such as 'wave drinking' or forced drinking of penalty shots during the dinner," but "other employees testified that there was no atmosphere of forced drinking except for the defendant."

The court explained, "It appears that the defendant wrote the post without accurately knowing the atmosphere or situation of the dinner he did not attend," and "Specifying 'three bottles of soju' in the post is different in meaning from vaguely expressing the victim as 'someone who forces others to drink.'

Former CEO Lim resigned from his position after the exposure but filed a defamation lawsuit against A a month later. It is also known that he filed a civil defamation suit demanding 50 million won in damages.