Employee Who Took Leave to Attend General Meeting Demanding Executive Dismissal... Court Rules "Disciplinary Action Unfair"

Court: "Attending General Meeting Without Work Obligation Is Not a Violation of Employment Rules"

A court ruling has determined that disciplining employees who held an extraordinary general meeting demanding the dismissal of executives while on leave and therefore not obligated to provide labor is unfair.

On the 11th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 3 (Presiding Judge Choi Su-jin) announced that it ruled against the plaintiff in the case where the international relief and development NGO Worldshare filed a lawsuit to cancel the reconsideration ruling of unfair suspension and unfair dismissal against the Central Labor Commission.

Six individuals, including Mr. A, who worked as department heads and team leaders at the organization, were dismissed and suspended in May 2021 for leading an extraordinary general meeting demanding the dismissal of all board members in February 2021.

The Seoul Regional Labor Commission in August 2021 accepted all relief applications, stating that "the acts of attending and speaking at the extraordinary general meeting by the participants cannot be considered disciplinary reasons under the employment regulations, and the dismissal of an employee on parental leave among the participants violates the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation, thus the disciplinary actions are unfair." In response, Worldshare requested a reconsideration from the Central Labor Commission, but after the reconsideration request was also dismissed, they filed a lawsuit.

During the trial, Worldshare argued that "the illegal extraordinary general meeting was an attempt to seize management rights by trying to dismiss all board members, evade disciplinary investigations and actions against the participants, and prevent the loss of full membership status."

However, the court did not accept these claims. The court found that since Mr. A and others attended the extraordinary general meeting while on leave, disciplinary action based on employment regulations could not be applied.

The court stated, "Employees employed by a corporation have clearly distinct legal status," and judged that "the fact that the extraordinary general meeting is illegal or that participants are not recognized as having voting rights is an issue as members of the corporation, but this cannot be regarded as misconduct as employees."

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