Photo: Gyeonggi-do Province Governor Lee Jae-myung visits the Seoul National University dormitory where the cleaning worker perished. Credit: the National Assembly.
Seoul National University 국립서울대학교 refused to apologize to the family of a cleaning worker who had been allegedly bullied on the job and died from a heart attack at work.
The worker, a 59 year old woman, was found dead on June 26 in the cleaning crew resting area at the school’s dorm. On July 7, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions 민주노동조합총연맹 held a protest at the school, alleging that the school management subjected the cleaning workers to a written exam asking questions irrelevant to their job, such as the year the building was built or the formal name of the building in English and Chinese.
The university launched an internal investigation of the cleaning crew’s working conditions, but said it was “unnecessary” to issue an apology. In a Facebook post since deleted, the university’s staff denounced the union’s protest as “disgusting victim cosplay.” Gyeonggi-do Province Governor and the leading presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung 이재명 경기도지사 visited SNU on July 11; Lee recalled that his sister was also a cleaning worker, who passed away in a bathroom while working.
