The Ministry of Employment and Labor will investigate a university-affiliated private hospital at which nurses were pressured to perform a suggestive dance in revealing clothes during a sports event.

Nurses at the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, claimed that they were forced to dance in front of some 1,000 co-workers and hospital officials during an annual sports competition, held October.

The case came to the light after a video of scantily-clad women seductively dancing on stage was uploaded on Facebook by a hospital whistle-blower. 

Local media said the ministry -- which has been investigating the medical foundation for alleged delayed payment of wages -- added the case of the dancing nurses to its probe list.

The nurses also claim that they were coerced to work extra hours without pay. The ministry had been scrutinizing the allegations of delayed wage payment amounting to the sum of 24 billion won ($21 million) at Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital in Gil-dong, Seoul.

Ministry inspectors are reportedly poised to make a field visit to the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital and meet the nurses to take their statements.

Should the ministry find circumstantial evidence that the hospitals violated the Labor Standards Act, it may lead to a criminal investigation.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)