About 1 in 3 workers has had a brush with "power harassment" over the past three years, up from 1 in 4 in the previous poll in 2012, a survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says.

The results show that bullying remains a prevalent problem in companies despite government efforts to improve the nation's working environment.

The results of the poll, released Friday, show that 32.5 percent of the respondents had been on the receiving end of abuses of authority carried out by higher-ranking employees, up 7.2 points from 2012, when the figure was 25.3 percent.