Supreme Court: "Volunteers Working Full-Time and Handling Accounting Tasks Should Be Considered Employees"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court has ruled that if a volunteer was responsible for important tasks such as accounting and worked full-time, the company must notify them in writing in advance of any dismissal policy, just like regular employees.

The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Kwon Soon-il) announced on the 22nd that it overturned the lower court's ruling in favor of the plaintiff in the appeal case filed by Seongnam City against the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission's order to impose a coercive fine, and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court with a ruling against the plaintiff.

The court judged that Mr. A’s labor exceeded the scope of unpaid volunteer activities and that the community center that assigned him the work was aware of this.

Accordingly, Mr. A should be regarded not as a volunteer but as a worker under the Labor Standards Act.

The court stated, "Whether a person is a worker under the Labor Standards Act should be judged based on substance rather than the form of the contract being an employment contract," and "It is reasonable to consider Mr. A as a worker who provided labor under a subordinate relationship for wages."

Mr. A was appointed as a volunteer at the Seongnam City Resident Autonomy Center in January 2009, managing facilities, and from 2013, he also handled overall volunteer coordination and accounting tasks. His working hours changed from two shifts (morning and afternoon) to full-time.

Since then, in addition to the daily volunteer allowance of 20,000 won he used to receive, he occasionally received allowances ranging from 120,000 to 600,000 won. He also prepared daily work logs and had them confirmed by the community center’s general affairs officer.

In December 2015, when his reappointment as a volunteer was denied, Mr. A filed an unfair dismissal relief application with the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission, claiming there was no justifiable reason for dismissal and that he was not notified in writing in advance of the dismissal timing.

The Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission ordered Seongnam City to reinstate Mr. A and pay wages corresponding to the dismissal period. Mr. A was reinstated, but his working hours were reduced from full-time to 4 hours per day.

Subsequently, the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission imposed a coercive fine of 8 million won on Seongnam City for partial non-compliance with the relief order. Seongnam City filed a lawsuit seeking cancellation of the coercive fine.

The first trial ruled that the coercive fine imposed by the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission was lawful.

However, the second trial judged that since Mr. A was hired based on the Volunteer Activities Promotion Act as part of public interest activities, his status as a volunteer did not change even if he worked full-time.

Accordingly, the second trial canceled the coercive fine imposed by the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission, which was based on the premise that Mr. A was a worker under the Labor Standards Act, ruling it illegal.

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