Korean Air matriarch receives suspended prison sentence for abusing staff

07/14/2020 USA


Lee Myung-hee, the widow of the late Korean Air president, Cho Yang-ho, was sentenced to 80 hours of community service and two years in prison on 18 counts of abuse against nine of his employees in a court in Seoul on Tuesday.

However, the sentence has been suspended for three years, which means that if you do not commit another crime at that time, you will not go to prison.

The accusations against Lee rocked South Korea and sparked a national debate about staff abuse, particularly in family conglomerates known as chaebols, which dominate the country’s economy.
His suspended prison sentence is likely to be a severe blow to labor rights activists, who hoped that Lee’s case could be a trial for chaebols, who have been linked to numerous allegations related to mistreatment of staff.

Prosecutors said Lee’s charges included using profane language, yelling and physically hurting employees, including his driver, and physically assaulting his gardener by throwing plants and metal scissors at him. The crimes occurred between 2011 and 2018, prosecutors said.

Korean Air said it would not comment on Lee’s sentence.

Family plagued by scandals

Lee is the third prominent member of the Korean Air dynasty accused of abusing staff.

In 2014, Lee’s daughter, Heather Cho, who was vice president of Korean Air at the time, demanded that an airplane return to her door for a stewardess to serve her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of a remote porcelain bowl. .
Culture of abuse and violence at the heart of some of South Korea's largest companies

She served five months of a one-year prison sentence after a South Korean court found her guilty of violating aviation law. After stewardess Park Chang-jin testified against Cho, he was demoted. In 2018, a court ruled the degradation was legal, but awarded him $ 18,000 in damages for coercion and assault.

Cho’s sister Emily also sparked public anger in 2018 over reports that she insulted an advertising executive and threw water in his face.

She apologized, saying that what she did was “dumb”. Both sisters were fired from Korean Air by their father after the scandals.

The family has also faced allegations beyond abusing staff. Last year, both Heather Cho and Lee received suspended prison terms for smuggling luxury goods via Korean Air planes, according to a report by national news cable Yonhap.
Cho Yang-ho’s son succeeded him as president of the South Korean airline last year.

Wider problem

Lee and her daughters are not the only elite family accused of abusing their staff.

South Korean bosses can now be jailed for firing harassed employees as the country cracks down on toxic work culture

According to Kim Eun-jung, economics and labor specialist for the civic group Popular Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, some chaebol owners run these major conglomerates as their own personal domains, with few external limits on their powers.

Kim said that previous governments have allowed this pattern of abuse.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly vowed to address issues with the chaebol system and eradicate gapjil, a Korean word for those in power who dominate their subordinates, which he has described as “evil in work place”.

Last year, a new law went into effect which means bosses who unfairly fire workers who complain of harassment in the office now face up to three years in prison, or a fine of 30 million won ($ 25,464).

In 2017, a survey by The Korean National Human Rights Commission found that more than 73% of respondents had been harassed in the past year, while a quarter had been harassed more than once a week.

– Jake Kwon, Sophie Jeong and Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report.

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