Third-party harassment protection legislation and female service workers’ health: evidence of perceived associations through social awareness

Purpose Although South Korea enacted the Third-party Harassment Protection Legislation in 2018 to address workplace harassment in face-to-face service environments, how it relates to worker outcomes – particularly women – remains underexplored. This study examines the perceived associations between the legislation’s implementation in the workplace and female workers’ health satisfaction, focusing on customer-facing roles in retail. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey was conducted in March 2021 with 273 female retail workers (from an initial pool of 1,537) who had over three years of customer-facing experience prior to the 2018 legislation, enabling pre–post comparison of workplace conditions. Legislative implementation was assessed using a self-reported compliance index based on binary indicators, whereas changes in social awareness, reduction in customer harassment, and health satisfaction were measured using Likert scales. Pre–post differences were examined using McNemar’s chi-square tests for individual items and paired t-tests for subscales. Mediation associations were examined using the PROCESS macro (Model 6) with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Findings A mediation model revealed that while perceived implementation of the legislation was not significantly associated with reduced harassment directly, it showed a meaningful indirect association with health satisfaction through workers’ perceptions of increased social awareness. These patterns suggest associations between implementation, social awareness, and health satisfaction. Originality/value The findings suggest that legal frameworks are associated with improved worker health satisfaction by potentially influencing perceived public attitudes and organisational culture, even when direct reductions in harassment are not observed. Enhancing public awareness and strengthening workplace-level implementation may be important areas for future intervention research aimed at the law’s intended outcomes and protecting service workers’ health.