Court Rules "Elected Officials Are Not Eligible for Severance Pay"

Former Gunpo Mayor Kim Yoon-joo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court ruling has determined that elected public officials are not entitled to severance pay.

According to the court on the 1st, the Seoul Administrative Court, Administrative Division 2 (Presiding Judge Jeongmin Lee) ruled against former Gunpo Mayor Yoonjoo Kim in a lawsuit he filed against the Government Employees Pension Service, claiming that "elected public officials should also receive retirement benefits."

The court stated, "The government employee pension system is fundamentally designed for career public officials based on long-term service," and added, "Local government heads can run for election based on a specific political party and are public officials elected by residents, which differs from career public officials who are guaranteed status under the Public Officials Act and are expected to serve long-term."

It further emphasized, "Local government heads have their job performance automatically guaranteed through the possibility of re-election for the next election, and since the total term of office cannot be predetermined, they are fundamentally different from other public officials."

Former Mayor Kim was elected four times in local elections. He served as Gunpo Mayor for a total of 16 years, from 1998 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2018. After losing the 2018 election, he claimed a lump-sum retirement pension and severance pay from the pension service.

However, the pension service rejected Kim’s claim, stating that as an elected public official, he was not subject to the Government Employees Pension Act. Kim filed a lawsuit in October last year in response.

In court, Kim argued, "The President and members of the National Assembly receive monetary support such as pensions after retirement under special laws," and claimed, "Excluding elected public officials from the Government Employees Pension Act without reasonable grounds and discriminating against them compared to other public officials violates the constitutional principle of equality," but this was not accepted.

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