Three Public Officials' Union Members Forcibly Removed During Sit-in at Tripartite Commission Meeting Over 'Time Off Approval'

Refusal to Vacate Charge

Three members of the Korea Public Officials Labor Union Federation and the National Public Officials Labor Union were forcibly removed by the police for refusing to comply with a removal request during a protest visit to the Economic, Social and Labor Council.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 23rd, the Jongno Police Station in Seoul announced that it had arrested three public official union members, including Seok Hyun-jung, chairperson of the Korea Public Officials Labor Union Federation, on charges of refusing to leave in front of the Public Officials Working Hours Exemption Deliberation Committee meeting room at Jongno-gu around 11 a.m. the previous day, and is conducting an investigation.

It was confirmed that they demanded to observe the meeting in protest against the decision on the exemption (time off) limit for the working hours of predecessors but were refused.

A representative of the National Public Officials Labor Union stated, "We requested the time-off limit to be about 90% compared to the private sector, but the union's opinion was completely ignored and it was settled at 30%, so this was a protest against that," adding, "We requested to observe, but the police issued a removal order and forcibly removed us."

A police official said, "As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot disclose specific details of the investigation."

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