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One year after the Equal Employment Act was revised to include sexual harassment as a punishable offense, businesses have made little progress in eradicating the problem, observers said.

A total of 205 sexual harassment cases were lodged at the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center (KSVIC) last year, up sharply from 157 in 1998.

A KSVIC official said the increase in the number of complaints does not indicate sexual harassment is on the rise. Rather, it shows that people are becoming more vocal on the subject, the official said.

The Labor Ministry, which opened a complaint center for sexual harassment for the first time last year, also received 142 cases.

Womenlink, which educates companies on sexual harassment, said that more men appear to be taking the problem seriously, realizing that their own partners or sisters could be victims.

But as for whether the change in the law has led to a visible improvement in conditions at the workplace, both the government and women's groups were pessimistic.

"Workers are still kept from speaking out for fear of facing disadvantages, while women generally hesitate to speak out from a sense of shame. It is also difficult to prove that one has been sexually harassed," a Womenlink official said, adding that the actual number of incidents of sexual harassment was much higher than official figures would suggest.

Of 187 sexual harassment cases submitted to the KSVIC, only 9 or 6.5 percent of them led to the filing of charges. Of the 142 received at the ministry, 18 led to charges being filed.

A recent survey showed that most companies have largely ignored a government decree to hold sexual harassment prevention training sessions at least once a year.

According to Womenlink, 64.4 percent of 163 companies surveyed did not hold a prevention class.

Small companies were more likely to ignore the government directive. Of workplaces with less than 500 employees, 76.5 percent failed to offer any lectures on the subject, while no training was offered at 87.9 percent of firms with less than 100 employees.

"The fact is that such classes are most necessary at small workplaces, where poor job security is likely to keep people from speaking out," a Womenlink official said.

A recent survey conducted by a women workers' group in Inchon, meanwhile, showed that 1 out of every ten women experience sexual harassment.

The survey, which polled 949 women, showed that 85 of them had been sexually harassed by their colleagues or superiors. Physical harassment made up the bulk of cases with 43, followed by 31 cases of verbal harassment.