A third member in the family-owned business is questioned by police over mistreatment of employees
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The wife of Korean Air’s chairman was questioned by police yesterday (28 May) for alleged verbal and physical abuse of its employees.
Lee Myung Hee is the third member of the family to be summoned by police over alleged mistreatment of staff.
Her two daughters had made headlines for “throwing temper tantrums” against employees – they were subsequently removed from their management roles at the airline company.
On 6 May, police formally accused Lee for the alleged abuses after gathering testimonies from 10 victims – including housekeepers, guards and construction workers. They started investigating the case after video clips and recordings allegedly showed her mistreatment.
In one of the clips, she is shown to be aggressively pulling an employee’s arm and shouting at staff at a construction site of Grand Hyatt Incheon in 2014.
She also reportedly fired a hotel employee for calling her a “grandmother”.
Lee was also captured allegedly using abusive language against a worker who was remodelling her house in 2013.
Lee is accused of abuses that range from cursing and screaming at employees to kicking, slapping and throwing a pair of scissors at them.
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As for the Lee daughters, the elder one was jailed for five months in 2014 after kicking a cabin crew chief for serving her nuts in a bag instead of a bowl.
The younger daughter was accused of throwing a drink at an advertising manager’s face during a business meeting.
Authorities have since launched official probes into the family’s reported abuse of workers, reported Channel NewsAsia.
Korean Air chairman and head of the chaebol – a Korean term meaning family-owned business conglomerate – issued a public apology, but employees are unsatisfied with the ongoing scandal.
Hundreds of Korean Air workers have held weekly protests in Seoul demanding that the family is removed from the country’s flag carrier.