Seoul City and Baedal Minjok Support Sexual Harassment Prevention Education for Small Businesses

Woowa Brothers and WithU Center Sign 'Win-Win Agreement for Creating Gender-Equal Workplaces in Food Service Businesses'
Consulting Support for Establishing Sexual Harassment Prevention and Victim Support Systems in Small Workplaces

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is partnering with Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baedal Minjok (hereinafter Baemin), and the Seoul Workplace Sexual Harassment and Violence Prevention Center (hereinafter With You Center) to provide sexual harassment prevention education targeting food service businesses with fewer than 30 employees in Seoul.

To this end, on the 27th, Seoul held an online agreement ceremony with With You Center and Woowa Brothers and announced the signing of a "Win-Win Agreement for Creating Gender-Equal Workplaces in Seoul Food Service Businesses."

The city plans to actively support small-scale businesses, which have a high rate of sexual harassment victims but find it difficult to systematically establish sexual harassment prevention and victim support systems.

According to an analysis of new consultations on "Workplace Sexual Harassment" by the Seoul Women Workers Association (from January 2018 to July 2020), 47.1% of sexual harassment victims were from workplaces with fewer than 30 employees, representing a high proportion.

The three organizations will promote collaborative projects to create gender-equal workplaces in Seoul's food service businesses by supporting sexual harassment prevention education for business owners of Baemin franchise stores operated by Woowa Brothers, conducting campaigns to improve gender-equal organizational culture, and providing consulting to establish sexual harassment prevention systems.

The sexual harassment prevention education for business owners will be designed to be applicable to small-scale businesses. Woowa Brothers will handle education promotion and matching to increase business owners' access to information and participation in the education.

The "Sexual Harassment Prevention Education for Business Owners" will provide effective training covering organizational culture checks for sexual harassment prevention, how to investigate incidents and protect victim workers when sexual harassment occurs, and measures to protect victim workers from sexual harassment by customers and prevent secondary damage.

Additionally, a campaign will be conducted to distribute the "Prevention and Response Guide for Harassment-Free Workplaces," suitable for small-scale businesses, to workplaces.

Last year, With You Center produced the "Prevention and Response Guide for Harassment-Free Workplaces" tailored for small-scale businesses and conducted a campaign distributing it to Baemin franchise business owners through "Baemin Academy," which provides information for small-scale businesses. This year, the campaign will be expanded.

According to Article 13, Paragraph 3 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, all workplaces must keep and post sexual harassment prevention education materials in places where employees can always see them. By distributing the prevention education guide, With You Center supports small-scale businesses in independently checking and improving their organizational culture. In addition, various collaborative projects will be promoted to spread a gender-equal culture in food service businesses, including producing and distributing phrases to prevent sexual harassment by customers.

The Seoul With You Center offers free consulting to small-scale businesses upon request, providing organizational culture diagnosis and solutions to establish workplace sexual harassment prevention and recurrence prevention measures, as well as reviewing employment rules and incident handling procedures. Applications for this support project can be made through the With You Center website.

Song Da-young, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Women and Family Policy Office, said, "Small-scale businesses find it difficult to systematically establish sexual harassment prevention and victim support systems for each workplace. Through this agreement, With You Center and Woowa Brothers will join hands to create an environment where workers in food service businesses can work safely and with gender equality."