"Power Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Coercion"... Controversy Surrounding Yeonggwang Chukhyup Union President

"Forcing Consent to Greeting Exchanges... Inappropriate Behavior Including Dozens of Minutes of Swearing"

Employee Fired After Probation Period... Lawsuit Underway Due to Procedural Flaws

Ahead of the 3rd Nationwide Simultaneous Cooperative Head Elections, Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative has been embroiled in controversy over the cooperative head's verbal abuse and the forced signing of employee consent forms for personnel exchanges. Additionally, with a lawsuit underway to confirm the invalidity of a dismissed employee's termination, the local community surrounding the cooperative head and Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative is in turmoil.

Screenshot of Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative homepage.

According to Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative on the 2nd, employee B passed the promotion exam for manager in 2020 but was not assigned a position for some time before being transferred to Haenam. B raised objections to the Haenam assignment, stating, "I live in Yeonggwang, so commuting is impossible," but when this was not accepted, B filed an unfair personnel treatment relief application with the Labor Office. The Labor Office ruled in favor of B.

The Labor Office judged the personnel transfer as unfair for reasons including: B agreed to the personnel transfer but was unaware it involved relocation to a remote area making daily life impossible; the transfer was made without the resolution of the personnel committee; and B was a technical management staff member, not a candidate for personnel exchange. Subsequently, B was reinstated to Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative.

After this incident, during the process of obtaining personnel exchange consent forms again, Cooperative Head A summoned employees who did not agree to the personnel exchange to the cooperative head's office, including B. Head A pressured B to write down preferred locations for personnel exchange at the regional headquarters, to which B responded that personnel exchange should be based on agreement, not coercion. During this exchange, Head A reportedly threw a glass and shouted abusive language for several tens of minutes. After this incident, B resigned.

Separately, Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative is also involved in a lawsuit to confirm the invalidity of a dismissal. Employee C, who was dismissed after working at Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative, filed a lawsuit claiming that the dismissal was unfair and that the cooperative knowingly ignored workplace abuse.

C signed an employment contract with Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative on September 6, 2021, completed a three-month probation period by December 5 of the same year, and worked as a regular employee. However, on December 30, a personnel committee meeting was held to discuss the termination of the probationary employee contract, and C was verbally notified of dismissal that afternoon. C claims that the cooperative tolerated workplace harassment by superiors and dismissed C for speaking out against the unfairness of such harassment.

C also pointed out procedural flaws. Despite having passed the three-month probation and working as a regular employee, a 'probationary employee personnel committee' was convened without written notice to C. Furthermore, C was not given any opportunity to explain or notified of the procedure regarding the termination agenda.

Article 26 of the Labor Standards Act stipulates that employers must notify employees 30 days in advance of dismissal. Article 27 requires that the reasons and timing of dismissal be communicated in writing. C argues, "Although there are some exceptions, this dismissal clearly violates the Labor Standards Act."

In response, a Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative official stated, "The issue is whether 90 days of work have passed, but since Yeonggwang Livestock Cooperative has not yet issued an appointment letter to C, it views the termination as a dismissal based on pre-appointment work evaluation." The official added, "Since the lawsuit is ongoing, we cannot provide detailed information." The Honam Reporting Headquarters of Asia Economy attempted to contact Head A but was unable to reach him.

Meanwhile, Head A, who is currently suspended from duty and running in the nationwide simultaneous cooperative head election scheduled for the 8th, sent an apology text message to cooperative members amid allegations of abuse of power and verbal abuse. In the message, Head A said, "It was part of efforts to correct employee negligence and disrupted work discipline, and I sincerely apologize to the parties involved." He added, "At that time, investigations and trials related to corruption among executives and staff were underway, and my determination to restore work discipline was too hasty."

He continued, "It is regrettable that this is being distorted and spread maliciously and deliberately ahead of the election two years later," and added, "There are malicious forces behind this who are jealous of the cooperative's success and refuse to reflect on their own corruption and wrongdoing."

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