A Store Owner In BC Offered An Employee Money To Have Sex & Fired Her When She Said No

A convenience store owner, who sexually harassed and offered money in exchange for sex to his employee, has now has been ordered to pay $98,916 in lost wages and damages.

The decision from the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal refers to the employee who filed the complaint as Ms. K, and the store owner by his name, Wooyoung Joung, who owns the Deep Creek General Store, in Armstrong, with his wife Sandy Park.

Ms. K filed a human rights complaint after her boss "misused" his position of power to sexually harass her.

Ms. K, who was 21 years old at the time she started working there, said after she refused his offer of $2,000 to have sex with him, he created a hostile workplace.

When she filed a discrimination complaint, he fired her and, according to the court documents, he visited her property in the middle of the night to intimidate her. Ms. K then filed another complaint, due to this trespassing and retaliation.

The harassment started in 2017 when Ms. K started working at the store. The decision said that Joung would make many sexual jokes at work and inappropriate comments about female customers about "what he would like to do to them."

"He would point to a banana or a pack of mentos," said the decision, and ask "how those items aligned with penis sizes."

He also asked Ms. K if she was "sexually active with her boyfriend," the decision said.

In August 2017, Joung asked Ms. K to go to lunch with him, and she declined the invitation multiple times. After he persisted though, telling her that he didn't have very many friends, she agreed.

Before they even went to lunch, Joung offered her $100 just to have the meal with him, which she declined.

On the drive back from lunch, Joung offered her $2,000 to have sex with him, said the decision.

She refused the proposition, and testified in the decision that she felt "shocked, insulted, disgusted, and sick to her stomach."

Joung repeatedly brought up the incident at work, then reduced her hours and "falsely accused her of stealing," said the decision.

The workplace grew increasingly uncomfortable, and the decision added that Joung "acted jealous when Ms. K had a conversation with a male customer," and said that she was "probably having sex with this male customer."

Joung fired Ms. K on September 28, 2017, giving her a termination letter that said it was due to her “insincere work behaviour," said the decision.

The ruling determined that there was no evidence of this reason being valid and that he actually fired her because she did not accept his proposition.

It was after this, in the winter of 2018, that Ms. K noticed that someone was sneaking onto her property. After watching surveillance camera footage, they found out it was Joung and filed a police report right away.

Joung has now been ordered to pay Ms. K $53,916.72 as compensation for lost wages and $45,000 for injury to her dignity, feelings, and self‐respect.