[Anchor]
As we exclusively reported, a company executive in his 60s sexually assaulted a 20-something employee with severe disabilities, resulting in a pregnancy. This took place at a workplace certified by the government as a standard workplace for persons with disabilities. Although the police have launched an investigation, the government certification for this workplace remains intact.
Reporter Je Hui-won has the details.
[Reporter]
Kim, a 29-year-old with a severe grade 2 intellectual disability, recently gave birth after suffering sexual assault from a 60-year-old executive at a laundry company.
The company, which was Kim's first job, was a standard workplace for persons with disabilities certified by the government two years ago.
[Victim's Father: She had an interview through the Incheon branch of the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities and joined the company. Because it was a standard workplace, I trusted it even more.]
Meeting the condition of employing more than 10 workers with disabilities, which accounts for over 30 percent of its workforce, the company received benefits such as tax reductions and sales support, with employment subsidies paid over the past three years reaching approximately 140 million won.
The company's CEO is the son of the 60-year-old perpetrator, making it effectively a family-run business. Last month, the company held an internal disciplinary committee and dismissed the executive, who is the father.
[Victim's Father: As I see it, this is just cutting off the tail to save the body. I didn't even know there was a senior vice president at that company.]
In response to an SBS inquiry regarding follow-up measures for the company, the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities, which manages and supervises standard workplaces for persons with disabilities, stated that it had issued a corrective order focusing on employee training and measures to prevent recurrence.
The agency explained that while this issue falls under "human rights violations" according to agency rules, revoking workplace certification for human rights violations such as sexual assault requires the offense to occur "three or more times within two years," meaning it does not meet the criteria for certification cancellation.
Critics point out that protection regulations under the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities are weaker compared to other facilities such as welfare centers.
[Park Min-seo / Lawyer: For (disabled) daycare facilities or centers for the welfare of persons with disabilities, facilities are ordered to be closed even for a single violation in cases of sexual violence. The legal system keeps producing cases where individuals are left unprotected in blind spots.]
To check for human rights violations, the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities conducted on-site inspections of the company three times starting the year before last, but failed to find even a single clue about this incident.
(Video Editing: Yu Mi-ra, Design: Lee Ga-jin, VJ: Noh Jae-min)
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