"Female Soldier Forced to Discharge After Ordering Junior to Carry Trash Bag on Way Home"

"Go to My House and Clear the Drinking Table" etc.

A female soldier who made junior non-commissioned officers run personal errands and wrongfully received overtime pay was discharged from the military.

According to Yonhap News on the 19th, the Administrative Division 1-1 of the Incheon District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Hyun-seok) ruled against former Staff Sergeant A in a lawsuit seeking to cancel a suspension order.

Former Staff Sergeant A, who was commissioned as a female non-commissioned officer in 2014, often arrived late while serving in an Army division in 2020.

The official start time was 8:30 a.m., but she usually arrived 20 to 30 minutes late or sometimes only reached the guard post during lunch hours. She was late 25 times over a period of 1 year and 7 months.

In addition to frequent tardiness, former Staff Sergeant A also made various errands requests to junior female non-commissioned officers.

In December 2020, she sent a KakaoTalk message to Corporal B asking, "Could you buy some trash bags at the convenience store on your way home after work?" Corporal B asked, "What size (liters) of bags do you need?" and former Staff Sergeant A replied, "About five 100L bags and ten 10L bags." Corporal B bought the trash bags at the mart as instructed.

It was later reported that Corporal B also received requests from former Staff Sergeant A to "buy drinks at the PX" and "fill out performance bonus documents on her behalf."

In January 2021, former Staff Sergeant A asked Corporal C in a social networking service (SNS) group chat with two junior corporals to go to her home and clean up after drinking. Corporal C went to former Staff Sergeant A’s quarters and cleaned up the drinking table alone.

Additionally, it was revealed that former Staff Sergeant A left her post in the situation room for about two hours and wrongfully received overtime pay.

After these facts came to light, the brigade commander of the unit disciplined former Staff Sergeant A in December 2021 with a three-month suspension for violating the duty to not leave the workplace and the duty of diligence.

Due to this disciplinary action, former Staff Sergeant A was subjected to a fitness-for-duty review and discharged from active service. She immediately filed an administrative lawsuit against the brigade commander seeking to cancel the suspension order that was the basis for her discharge.

In the lawsuit, she argued that "the guard post entry records, which were the basis for the tardiness, were inaccurately recorded and unreliable," and that "the requests to buy things were favors, not errands."

However, the court stated, "The plaintiff had no job-related reason and made juniors do tasks she should have done herself, even ordering personal errands such as purchasing items and cleaning up after drinking," and added, "It is hard to accept that she made juniors do these tasks when she could have done them herself later at her quarters."

The court further explained, "When the plaintiff arrived at the unit’s guard post to report for duty, a soldier verified her identity and reported it, and the duty officer at the command and control room entered the entry time into the system," judging that "there is little room for time errors."

Moreover, the court ruled, "The three-month suspension the plaintiff received complies with the Army’s disciplinary standards," and "The plaintiff’s misconduct disrupted military unit order and lowered morale, so strict measures are necessary to establish discipline."

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