Law "Unilateral dismissal not allowed even if annual salary exceeds 100 million won and not a fixed-term worker"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court ruling has emerged stating that even if an employee earns an annual salary exceeding 100 million won and thus does not fall under the category of fixed-term workers, a unilateral dismissal notice is still considered unfair.

The ruling recognizes that if an employment contract has been renewed multiple times over a long period, there is an expectation that the contract will continue to be renewed.

According to the legal community on the 12th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 14 (Presiding Judge Sanghoon Lee) ruled against Ulsan Metropolitan City in a lawsuit filed against the Central Labor Commission, which requested the cancellation of a retrial decision that remedied unfair dismissal.

The court stated, "The plaintiff did not conduct work evaluations or take measures based on evaluation results for Mr. A as stipulated by regulations," and added, "Despite the lack of objective evidence, excluding Mr. A’s expectation of contract renewal and notifying the contract expiration followed by new hiring is difficult to consider reasonable according to social norms."

Mr. A worked as the assistant conductor of the Ulsan Metropolitan City Arts Group choir for 13 years starting in 2005. He signed appointment contracts every two years, with the contract set to expire in March 2018. However, Ulsan City notified him of the contract expiration one month before the contract ended.

Mr. A claimed unfair dismissal. Both the Local Labor Commission and the Central Labor Commission judged the dismissal as unfair.

Ulsan City filed a lawsuit in objection, arguing that since Mr. A was among the top 25% of earners receiving an annual salary exceeding 100 million won, he did not qualify as a fixed-term worker protected by the legal expectation of contract renewal.

The court also recognized that Mr. A fell into the top 25% of earners and thus did not fall under the category of fixed-term workers.

However, the court ruled, "Since Mr. A was reappointed as assistant conductor seven times over 13 years, and there were no special circumstances such as a significant decline in his skills as revealed by work evaluations, the expectation of reappointment as assistant conductor is recognized."

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