One in four workers in the health and welfare sector said they experienced workplace harassment. The government will work with the hospital community to improve organizational culture and strengthen labor inspections to reduce bullying and excessive workloads in hospitals.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on the 13th that they signed a business agreement titled "Creating safe hospitals where people want to work" at Inha University Hospital in Incheon with the Korean Hospital Association, the Korean Nursing Association (KNA), the Korea Labor and Employment Service, and the Korea Employment and Labor Educational Institute (KELI).
This is the first time the government has built a cooperative system that includes the Health Ministry, the Labor Ministry and the hospital community to improve organizational culture and working conditions on the hospital front lines.
In a 2024 fact-finding survey, the rate of experiencing workplace harassment in the health and welfare sector was 25%, the highest among all industries. In last year's workplace harassment reports, the health and welfare sector also accounted for the highest share at 16%.
The signatory organizations will form a "health care workplace innovation council" and review implementation every half-year. The three core tasks are identifying on-site conditions, improving organizational culture and working environments, and linking reporting with labor inspections.
First, the Labor Ministry has been conducting a workplace harassment survey tailored to the health sector since June. It will identify the status of bullying at small and midsize hospitals and clinics in the provinces and examine support and remedy systems, while also gathering views from the medical and nursing communities.
For nursing staff, the government plans to survey job conditions, human rights violations and treatment by type of medical institution, occupation and region.
Consulting to improve hospital organizational culture will also be expanded. Hospitals recommended by the Korean Hospital Association will be put on a fast track so they can start consulting without a separate review, and the self-pay portion for organizational culture improvement will be waived on a one-time basis this year.
In particular, a special diagnosis will be conducted for nurses with less than three years on the job, checking new nurse training, hierarchical organizational culture, shift work and staffing shortages. If problems are identified, they will be connected to organizational culture improvement consulting.
Support to reduce working hours will also be expanded to ease workloads for medical workers. Using the "Work-life balance+4.5 project," currently operating for life and safety health sectors, the government will back reductions in actual working hours and pursue ways to expand support to medical workers who were previously excluded, such as nurses at university hospitals.
The response system when workplace harassment occurs will also be strengthened. Counseling and support will be expanded through channels such as the nurse SOS help desk at the Nursing Workforce Support Center, and the Health Ministry and the Korean Nursing Association (KNA) will devise ways to link problem business sites identified in the field to the Labor Ministry's labor inspections.
The Labor Ministry is currently conducting a planned inspection of 14 small and midsize hospitals where multiple workplace harassment reports have been filed, reviewing compliance with labor relations laws across the board.
Through the first comprehensive nursing plan, the Health Ministry also plans to improve nurses' working conditions, including institutionalizing appropriate nurse staffing.