Two-thirds of employees in South Korea have received work-related calls or text messages outside office hours over the past year, a recent survey showed.
According to a study released Sunday by Global Research, 66 percent of respondents said they had been contacted by their superiors after work hours or during holidays and weekends at least once.
The survey was conducted among 1,000 South Koreans aged 19 and older between Oct. 1 and Oct. 14, 2025.
By frequency, the largest share of respondents, at 21.2 percent, said they were contacted one to three times per month. This was followed by one or two times per week (20.6 percent), one to 10 times per year (18.6 percent) and more than three times per week (5.6 percent).
About 31 percent said they received work-related contact after 10 p.m.
When contacted, 30.5 percent of respondents said they handled the request immediately through remote means, while 60.6 percent said they addressed the matter the following workday. Only 8.9 percent said they did not respond.
More than 45 percent of respondents said the contact was for matters they did not consider urgent.
The survey also found that more than 80 percent of respondents supported the creation of legal measures to restrict after-hours work-related contact.
“Cases of workers complaining of fatigue due to constant connectivity are increasing,” said attorney Jung So-yeon of Workplace Gapjil 119, a workers' rights group. “Legislative protection is urgently needed.”
Multiple revisions to the Labor Standards Act aimed at guaranteeing the “right to disconnect” have been proposed since 2016, but were all automatically scrapped during the 20th and 21st sessions of the National Assembly due to term expiration.
Two related bills are currently pending at the 22nd National Assembly, introduced by Rep. Park Hong-bae of the Democratic Party of Korea and Rep. Kim Wi-sang of the People Power Party.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com
