Court Rules "Unfair to Apply '1-Hour Deduction' Rule for Overtime to Part-Time Public Officials"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Jo] A court ruling has determined that it is unfair to deduct one hour for dinner and break time and pay allowances to part-time public officials who work overtime, as is done for other public officials.

According to the legal community on the 23rd, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 11 (Presiding Judge Hyungsun Park) ruled in favor of plaintiffs A and others, two part-time public officials hired under the time-selective system at a national university, in a wage lawsuit against the state.

The court stated, "The regulation concerning public official allowances, which deducts one hour for dinner and break time when working overtime after 6 p.m., was first established in 2012 but did not consider the implementation of the time-selective public official system," adding, "It is not appropriate to apply this regulation to the plaintiffs."

It further explained, "The main reason for the one-hour deduction is that dinner is taken before working overtime after 6 p.m.," and added, "Since the plaintiffs finished work at 2 p.m. and then worked additional hours until 6 p.m., which counts as overtime, applying the deduction regulation is unfair."

A and others were appointed as time-selective public officials at a national university from 2016, working four hours a day on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (with a one-hour lunch break deducted).

Although they worked overtime several times after their scheduled work hours, the university deducted one hour uniformly from the overtime hours based on the regulation concerning public official allowances and paid allowances only for the remaining hours.

A and others filed a lawsuit arguing that when working overtime after 2 p.m., they worked continuously without separate dinner or break times, and that this regulation, which assumes the work pattern of general public officials, should not be applied.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.