Supreme Court: Dismissal of a Boss Who Ostracized Subordinates by Spreading Private Information and Publicly Reprimanding Them Is Justified

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court has ruled that the dismissal of a Military Mutual Aid Association employee, who was fired for spreading rumors about a subordinate's private life and publicly reprimanding them, was justified.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Sang-ok) announced on the 8th that it overturned the lower court's ruling, which had judged the dismissal as unfair in a lawsuit filed by the Military Mutual Aid Association against the Central Labor Relations Commission seeking to cancel the retrial decision on unfair dismissal, and remanded the case to the Daejeon High Court with a ruling in favor of the plaintiff.

The court stated regarding the actions of the dismissed Military Mutual Aid Association employees, "Their behavior violated the value of mutual respect among employees and exceeded the level of ordinary guidance or advice," adding, "The subordinate employee suffered considerable mental distress as a junior and appears to have resigned due to the deterioration of the working environment."

Employee A of the Military Mutual Aid Association publicly reprimanded employee C, who had transferred to the same team, by repeatedly saying things like "Someone who doesn't even know accounting came and ruined the atmosphere."

Employee B, also on the same team, ignored C by tearing up printed materials that C brought immediately. B also influenced the team atmosphere to exclude C from company dinners.

It was also investigated that A and B spread rumors among other employees that "C seems to be having an affair with a coworker."

When these facts became known to the company, A and B were referred to the personnel committee and were dismissed.

Disagreeing with the disciplinary action, the two applied for relief at the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission and received a favorable decision. However, the Military Mutual Aid Association filed a lawsuit to cancel the retrial decision, arguing that the dismissal was justified.

The first trial court judged that the Military Mutual Aid Association's dismissal was not an abuse of disciplinary discretion and that the actions of A and B severely disrupted corporate order, making it impossible to maintain the employment relationship, thereby canceling the Central Labor Relations Commission's retrial decision that had deemed the dismissal unfair.

However, the second trial court overturned the first trial's ruling, judging the disciplinary action unfair, citing reasons such as C having never previously complained of group bullying.

Although it was acknowledged that unverified statements about an affair were made to others, it was interpreted as advice to "be careful because rumors of dating have spread." The court judged that it was difficult to definitively conclude that the disciplinary reason was "spreading private life."

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