Public Corporation Employee Dismissed for Sexual Harassment... Still Received Full Severance Pay of 165 Million Won

Kim Sang-hoon, a member of the People Power Party and the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Public institutions under the jurisdiction of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee have gone too far in "protecting their own," fully paying retirement allowances to executives and employees who have been dismissed or fired or sentenced to imprisonment with labor.

Kim Sang-hoon, a member of the People Power Party belonging to the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, announced on the 6th that, after conducting a full survey of 21 out of 25 public institutions under the committee's jurisdiction that have dismissed or fired employees, a total of 151 such employees were recorded in the past five years, and a total of 5,799.47 million KRW in retirement allowances was paid to them.

In particular, 106 of them received the full amount without any reduction.

By institution, Korail (Korea Railroad Corporation) and its five subsidiaries paid the full retirement allowances totaling about 1,047 million KRW to 50 dismissed or fired employees. A total of 14 institutions, including SR which operates the Suseo High-Speed Railway, Korea Airports Corporation, and Korea Construction Management Corporation, also paid full retirement allowances to dismissed or fired employees.

Even when reductions were made, they were minimal. Among the 45 dismissed or fired employees who received reduced payments, the average reduction per person was only 11.4%.

The person who received the highest retirement allowance was an employee of the Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation, who was dismissed for sexual harassment but received the full amount of 165 million KRW without a single won deducted. The second highest was an employee of the Korea National Railway Corporation who was dismissed for bribery and received the full amount of 159.5 million KRW. Despite serious disciplinary reasons, they fully received large retirement allowances.

Regulations related to retirement allowances for public institution employees are stipulated in internal company rules rather than laws, and due to internal leniency, the reduction regulations for retirement allowances are at a very lenient level.

Rep. Kim said, "In the case of public officials, if a sentence of imprisonment or higher is confirmed or dismissal occurs, retirement benefits are reduced by up to 50% depending on the length of service," adding, "Since public institutions also perform public duties, it is necessary to regulate retirement allowance payment rules by law, similar to public officials."

He also said, "Measures should be considered to mandatorily claim damages from the relevant executives and employees when public institutions suffer losses due to misconduct."

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