School Stationed Teacher Reinstated After Dismissal in Storage Room... Human Rights Commission Calls It "Human Rights Violation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The National Human Rights Commission has recommended corrective measures to a school that made a teacher, who was reinstated after being dismissed for making unfavorable statements about the chairman of the school foundation, wait in a storage room.

The Human Rights Commission announced on the 23rd that it issued a warning to the principal and the administrative director of the school and recommended the chairman of the school foundation A to establish measures to prevent recurrence to ensure that similar human rights violations do not occur.

According to the Human Rights Commission, in 2017, a public interest report was filed with the local education office alleging that the chairman of school foundation A offered money as a condition for hiring during the teacher recruitment process. The education office requested an investigation, and the police and prosecution began an inquiry. At that time, teacher B testified to the prosecution that "the chairman said he would hire me as a teacher if I gave him 50 million won." The chairman was sentenced to six months in prison by the court in 2019.

Subsequently, in May 2020, teacher B was dismissed by the school foundation's teacher disciplinary committee but filed a cancellation request with the Teacher Appeal Committee, which overturned the dismissal, leading to B's reinstatement in December of the same year. However, B filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, claiming that they were made to wait in the storage space of the integrated support office instead of the teachers' office.

According to the Human Rights Commission's investigation, the school's administrative director made teacher B, who returned to work after reinstatement, wait in the storage area of the integrated support office, and the principal did not correct the administrative director's action. Teacher B had to wait sitting on student desks and chairs in that space, and this situation was exposed to students and fellow teachers.

In response, the respondents argued, "We did not anticipate the victim's reinstatement, and when the victim suddenly came to work, there was no time to prepare a workplace," and "The space where the victim waited that day was not a workplace but a place to wait for about 3 to 4 hours to receive work instructions."

However, the Human Rights Commission judged that the integrated support office storage space where teacher B waited appeared to be a warehouse storing exercise mats, clothes hangers, and home appliances, and that providing student desks and chairs without considering the teacher's status was inappropriate as a waiting space for a reinstated teacher. Furthermore, considering that this situation was exposed to students and fellow teachers, causing humiliation, the commission concluded that teacher B's personal rights were violated.

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