In Gyeonggi Province, the head of a NongHyup cooperative from 2015 to June 2022 ordered an employee to go to land under the spouse's name and do field leveling, making furrows, weeding, disinfection, waste cleanup, garden maintenance, mowing, and more. The head frequently sent the employee photos of overgrown grass by cellphone day and night, on weekdays and holidays alike, with messages such as "Do the weeding tomorrow" and "Cut all the weeds and scrub in the stone-crack stairs." When a professional landscaper could not work due to a heat wave, the employee had to pick up a brushcutter and do the work directly.
The eight years of "gapjil" were revealed in an Oct. 2023 audit by the Cooperative Audit Committee, an internal body of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation. But the only disciplinary action imposed on the head was a three-month suspension from duty. That is because the federation can only request discipline, while the cooperative decides the level of discipline. In effect, the cooperative disciplines its own head. The head in question has served five terms from 2009 to the present and, at the time of the audit, had even served as a director representing heads at the federation. The person received multiple excellent manager awards from NongHyup affiliates.
Workplace bullying and sexual harassment and assault cases by cooperative heads, who hold the top power in NongHyup, are increasing. Misconduct is repeatedly uncovered in federation audits, but internal controls are not functioning, as heads receive only a slap on the wrist and keep their positions. Critics say this stems from the structural limitation that heads directly elect the federation president.
According to "disciplinary status of cooperative heads at agricultural and livestock cooperatives in the past five years," obtained by Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Im Mi-ae, a member of the Agriculture. Food. Rural Affairs. Oceans. and Fisheries Committee, from the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation on the 27th, there were no disciplinary cases (including duplicates) for heads' bullying, sexual harassment, or sexual assault in 2020. However, there were two cases each in 2021 and 2022, five cases in 2023, three cases in 2024, and four cases from January to August this year, showing an upward trend.
In local NongHyup cooperatives, the head wields such overwhelming power that people even say there is "one-man rule by the head." Since 1988, heads have been elected by member vote, but because operations are closed, it is easy to find cases where a head has served for more than 10 years. Internal control by the federation is essential, but there are criticisms that audits by the federation have limits because heads hold the right to elect the federation president.
In particular, due to the NongHyup Cooperatives Act, which stipulates that only a finalized conviction creates grounds for disqualification as an executive, many continue to serve openly as heads even after being flagged in audits. A bill to amend this provision was introduced in 2023, but ultimately failed to pass the National Assembly.
In fact, in Gyeonggi-Incheon, a NongHyup cooperative head was found in a federation audit to have made physical contact with several female employees at a company dinner in Dec. 2022 and at a second round at a karaoke bar. Yet the head continued without issue and even ran in, and won, the nationwide cooperative heads election in March 2023, becoming a three-term head. The person kept the position for a year and then only stepped down after receiving a one-year prison sentence in June 2024 on a charge of forcible molestation.
There are criticisms that as heads wield unchecked power, it has created an environment where even branch managers directly below them can routinely engage in gapjil. In Jeongeup, North Jeolla, a NongHyup branch manager, while discussing work with a Director in Feb. 2021, reassigned that person to work for a week as a sales assistant at a Hanaro Mart on the grounds that the person talked back. The manager instructed mart staff, "Don't even let (the Director) sit in a chair." Even the manager's acquaintance ordered NongHyup employees to clean and run car errands. Although these facts were revealed two years later in an Apr. 2023 federation audit, the branch manager is working as a branch manager at another branch.
According to "audit results of local agricultural and livestock cooperatives in the past three years," workplace bullying that occurred at local agricultural and livestock cooperatives reached 137 cases from 2023 through September this year. Sexual harassment and sexual assault totaled 100 cases.
Lawmaker Im Mi-ae said, "The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation says every year that it will strengthen its management and oversight system over heads' misconduct, which is repeatedly pointed out, but reality has not changed," adding, "Measures that enable practical management and oversight must be prepared so that repeated misconduct by heads does not undermine NongHyup's public trust."