[Exclusive] “Runbemu shares a video of an employee reading an apology… Pressure for ‘voluntary resignation’ instead of dismissal”

An apology posted by an employee of the London Bagel Museum (left), and feedback given by a director surnamed Jeong to a video of an apology read by a Runbemu employee during a morning assembly (right)

Circumstances also emerged that Hanel BM operates an anonymous reporting system, and that a video of an employee who received a report through the system reading an apology was uploaded to a KakaoTalk group chat room and shared with employees. When a report is received through an ‘anonymous communication channel’ called Lens Service, the headquarters is said to have the affected employee read an apology during morning assembly. In response to a video of an apology being read, an LBM director surnamed Jeong left a comment saying, “All branches, employees, and positions should take a close look together to establish a good culture.”

According to the data received from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, a total of 41 people were retired from 11 workplaces, including LBM headquarters, 7 Runbemu stores, and 3 Runbemu factories, and received unemployment benefits for three years from 2023 to September 2025. During this period, a total of 1,250 employees resigned from 11 workplaces, that is, lost employment insurance. Only about 3% of all recipients received unemployment benefits.

According to LBM’s employment status disclosure, 726 of the total 750 workers are fixed-term workers. Under the Employment Insurance Act, if the insured unit period (working days + weekly holidays) is more than 180 days and there is ‘involuntary resignation,’ you are eligible to receive unemployment benefits. This means that if you leave the company due to the expiration of the contract period, you can receive unemployment benefits. Jong-su Jang, a labor attorney (secretary general of the Workplace Gapjil 119 Online Labor Union), said, “It is incomprehensible to common sense that the rate of fixed-term workers is about 97%, but the number of unemployment benefit recipients is less than 5%.”

It appears that there was pressure from LBM’s side behind this. Mr. A, who worked as a team leader at Runbemu, said, “There was an employee who was not good at his job, so when I tried to fire him, I received instructions from the LBM service operation headquarters to ‘get him to voluntarily resign after an interview.’” Another employee, Mr. B, said, “I inquired about unemployment benefits because I was sick from overwork, but the company said no because there would be disadvantages,” and added, “I have never seen an employee around me receive unemployment benefits because their superior encouraged them to voluntarily resign.” There was a case where LBM received employment subsidies at some workplaces, but it is presumed that it encouraged voluntary resignations because it received disadvantages such as refund of the subsidies in case of artificial downsizing due to recommended resignation.

Amazing

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