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Over the past five years, nearly 40,000 cases of verbal abuse, bullying and other forms of workplace harassment have been reported in Korea, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Sunday.

However, less than 5 percent of the cases resulted in prosecution, fines or corrective guidance, prompting the government to work on improving the system's effectiveness.

From the time the revised Labor Standards Act took effect making workplace bullying punishable on July 16, 2019, to the end of May this year a total of 39,316 bullying cases have been reported.

The number of reports has been steadily increasing each year: 2,130 cases in 2019, 5,823 in 2020, 7,774 in 2021, 8,961 in 2022 and 1,960 in 2023. For the first five months of this year, 3,668 cases were reported.

Out of these cases, 38,732 have been processed. This includes 4,005 cases where corrective guidance was given, 501 cases resulting in fines and 709 cases referred to the prosecution for further investigation.

Among the 709 cases referred to the prosecution, 302 perpetrators were indicted, representing 0.78 percent of the total processed cases.

In 11,998 cases, the victims withdrew the reports, while in 11,301 cases, the ministry or the police concluded there were no legal violations.

A low number of cases resulted in indictment because only one clause of the law stipulates criminal penalty, stating an employer should not fire or give disadvantageous treatment to a worker who reports workplace bullying. Violators are subject to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won ($21,800).

Last year, only 4.3 percent of reported cases resulted in relatively strong measures of fines or prosecution referrals, highlighting the need for improvements to enhance the system's effectiveness.

In response, the government is working on improving the system, including clarifying the criteria for bullying. The ministry noted that most countries, including France, Norway and Australia, require "persistence or repetition" to define bullying.

"As there are differing opinions on this matter, we plan to improve systems and regulations by collecting opinions from across the field and from experts," the ministry said.