Gapjil
Gapjil (Korean: 갑질) is an expression referring to an arrogant and authoritarian attitude or actions of people in South Korea who have positions of power over others.
Song Jae-ryung, a professor of sociology at Kyunghee University, points out that gapjil is not simply a matter of an individual's morality, but a societal problem.
As the bottom of Korean society is constituted by the repressive role of gap and submissive attitude of eul, individuals follow the culture of the elite.
In other words, the cause of gapjil is a cultural tendency for people to merely perform the roles which are shaped by the high power distance in Korea.
[6] On 19 April 2016, the Masan Branch of the Changwon District Public Prosecutor's Office requested that Kim Man-sik issue a summary order of 7,000,000 won (about 6,300 USD at the time) in fines relating to habitual assaults, violence and violation of labour standards.
[7] In October 2010, Choi Cheol-won, the CEO of M&M, called a tank truck driver who had gone on a demonstration in front of the SK headquarters to his office, and assaulted him with such objects as a baseball bat.
Huge amounts of public criticism, particularly resulting from a memorandum that had been written to certify that the driver was given 20,000,000 won (about 18,000 USD at the time) as compensation for the violence.
After a heated confrontation with the cabin crew chief, Cho assaulted him and ordered him fired and removed from the plane, requiring a return to the gate and delaying the flight.
[15] Namyang Co. caused more than 20 billion won (about 18,000,000 USD at the time) worth of damage through illegal activities—such as high-pressure sales and shifting wages of salesmen to local franchises—for the past seven years, for which the Seoul Central District Court convicted it in January 2014.
[18] Passion-pay is a type of labour extortion where a business or enterprise pays less than minimum wage, or even nothing, for the labor of young job seekers on the excuse that the position will be prestigious or advantageous.
[20] In September 2017, Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) was in a controversy because it had inflicted passion-pay on newly graduated nurses for five years since 2012, for a "probationary education period".
[22] On 11 April 2016, the Korean civil society organisation Public Welfare Committee (PWC) opened a 24-hour call centre for reporting gapjil damages and behavior.
PWC explained that the purpose of the call center was to prevent gapjil behavior, which is prevalent in South Korean society, and to conduct criminal and civil measures through case verification.
The FTC said the purpose of the investigation was to secure basic data to prevent unfair trade practices between headquarters and franchises, in order to prepare policies and improve the system.
In addition, they state their opinion in policy enforcement, and they suggest ideas to improve the system by collecting problems information on the field.
[29] In December 2014, the nut rage incident was covered by numerous international media, and gapjil reached a level of global prominence.
