Ruling party, government to push for law after death of MBC weathercastser
The ruling People Power Party and the government agreed to introduce a new bill to tackle workplace harassment, in the wake of MBC weathercaster Oh Yo-anna's suicide last year that prompted a backlash against the broadcaster.
Rep. Kim Sang-hoon, policy chief of the ruling party, told reporters after his meeting with the government officials to review the national policy direction, that the party will float a special bill to prevent freelancers and on-demand workers from being harassed regardless of their employment status.
South Korea had over 4 million freelancers as of 2022, according to the Korea Worker Institute, and a separate government estimate suggested Korea had over 880,000 on-demand workers as of 2023.
The party and the government "agreed that it is highly concerning that (MBC) did not take any action after learning that a young worker's death was due to the conflict with colleagues," Kim said.
He urged MBC to reveal the truth behind the incident and warning it would ask the Labor Ministry to launch a special probe into MBC.
The move follows a recent revelation that late Oh, who was a freelance weathercaster of MBC, had expressed frustration from her colleagues' workplace harassment in a note discovered after she died and mobile phone messages indicated her suffering. Oh was 28 when she died in September.
Employees in South Korea are already protected from workplace harassment under the Labor Standards Act, but the act doesn't cover freelancers and other workers who are not considered employees.
The current setting stirred a debate as the law precluded an investigation into workplace harassment that Hanni, a Vietnamese Australian member of K-pop girl group NewJeans, claimed she suffered because she could not be considered a worker.
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