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Almost half of call center workers have thought about taking their own lives due to poor labor conditions and extreme emotional stress, a state human rights watchdog survey showed Wednesday.
In the survey of 1,996 call center people conducted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea from August to October, 48 percent said they thought of killing themselves with 30 percent saying they had done so in the past year.
As reasons for having suicidal thoughts, economic difficulties were cited the most at 55.6 percent, followed by mental stress at 53.4 percent.
The survey showed poor working conditions at call centers have not improved even after Korea implemented a law aimed at protecting the health of workers at them in 2018.
The workers experienced emotional stress once per week, suffered verbal abuse and sexual harassment from customers 11.6 times and 1.1 times per month, respectively.
Two out of three workers were found to have been diagnosed with work-related illnesses, with one in three having received medical treatment.
More than 25 percent of respondents said they could not use the bathroom freely because of the heavy workload, and 15.5 percent said they do not have a separate place to take a rest.
According to the survey, the workers also experienced unfair treatment from their companies, including excessive pressure on their performance, surveillance of their work and workplace bullying.
But 86 percent of respondents said there is no practical way to resolve such issues. (Yonhap)
