초ㆍ중등학교 내 갑질ㆍ괴롭힘에 대한 입법 정책적 개선방안

It has been four years since the Labor Standards Act enforced the prohibition against workplace harassment. Despite the initial concerns about the legal provisions regarding workplace harassment, the workplace harassment prohibition system has been stably implemented. The recent amendment made to the Labor Standards Act can be evaluated to have enhanced the effectiveness of the prohibition against workplace harassment by significantly strengthening the provisions related to measures to be taken in cases of workplace harassment, based on the premise that the legal provisions have taken roots in Korean society to a certain degree. While the controversy over the detailed provisions still persists, it is clear that the provisions regarding the prohibition against workplace harassment play an important role in protecting workers' right to dignity. However, there are considerable difficulties in enforcing the prohibition against workplace harassment in schools. The main reasons are the complexity of the laws and regulations applied to schools and the lack of perception that people working at schools are also workers. Due to these reasons, the improvement of awareness about workplace harassment in schools is made too slow, and therefore, employees at schools are at risk of being negatively affected. Despite such circumstantial challenges, it is necessary to enforce the regulations aimed at prohibiting workplace harassment to protect school employees. It is necessary to include schools in the scope of the government guidelines, and to establish new regulations against workplace harassment in school-related laws. Such improvements made in related laws and policies are expected to contribute to respecting and protecting school employees’ right to human dignity.