Business tycoons will soon come under closer watch, as political parties and civic groups are seeking to strengthen monitoring and regulation of their behavior. 

The move comes amid mounting public criticism toward conglomerate leaders, following a recent series of alleged assault and abuse cases.

Nonprofit organization Public Welfare Committee recently set up a call center to monitor abusive remarks or acts by owner family members, CEOs or executives in workplaces.

“We wanted to get to the bottom of the owner families’ repeated abuses, which are easily forgotten after half-hearted apologies,” the committee’s chief Kim Soon-hwan told The Korea Herald by phone.

Kim said his committee has already filed a complaint with the prosecution against the three big-name businessmen who recently prompted public uproar for their misdemeanor.

They are Hyundai BNG Steel’s chief Chung Il-sun, who is a grandson of the late Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, chairman Jung Woo-hyun of MPK Group, which runs the Mr. Pizza chain, and Daelim Group’s vice chairman and heir apparent Lee Hae-wook. 


The junior Chung was recently accused of habitually bad-mouthing and beating his chauffeurs. He even hit one of them in the head 30 times and kicked one in the chin for a minor mistake, according to news reports.

The chairman of MPK Group was found to have slapped a building guard last week, just because he closed the shutters while he was still inside the building. Daelim’s heir apparent incurred the public’s wrath when his longtime inhumane treatment of chauffeurs was revealed last month.

Apart from civic groups, academics and politicians are also calling for stricter regulations on bosses who abuse their power, saying the recent revelations may be just the tip of the iceberg as many victims tend to stay silent for fear of retaliation or losing their jobs.

“There should be stricter institutions and monitoring systems to curb such abuses,” said Park Sang-in, a professor at Seoul National University’s graduate school of public administration. “In many companies here, there is no internal control system, as owner families tend to run their business (in the same way that) kings used to wield absolute power in the past.”

The ruling Saenuri Party announced this week that it would push for a law to protect such victims. The bill, due to be proposed in the first half of this year, aims to protect employees who are mentally and physically abused by their superiors, according to the party’s spokesperson.

Market experts said it is time for conglomerate owner families to change, given that such behavior could deal a blow to their companies’ reputations.

Kim Hoh, head of consulting firm The Lab H and coauthor of “Reputation Society,” said, “With the development of social media, companies now have to care about their reputation and public opinion -- apart from their direct consumers.”

“The bad reputation of a company can lead to a boycott and even to the government’s policy decisions,” he added.

Franchise owners of Mr. Pizza had to apologize, as a boycott on the product continued even after its chief’s apology. Hanjin Group, which runs Korean Air, previously had to give up building its hotel near Gyeongbokgung Palace, after failing to get permission from the government amid public outcry over the “nut-rage” incident.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)