In cases of when an employee misses incoming calls more than two times a day, when an employee does not make a report attached with photos at the interval of one hour, when an employee disturbs others on duty or in an education program.....
These are cases, if name a few, for warnings to be issued to the employees who work for the environment preservation at the Yeongsangang River and Seomjingang River managed by the Yeongsangang River Watershed Environment Office. There is a list containing 13 cases that the employees should not do. If an employee receives three warnings in violation of the prohibition list within a period of two years, he or she will be dismissed.
The Korea Daily Labor News found on October 23 that the Yeongsangang River Watershed Environment Office of the Ministry of Environment applies the dismissal rule to the Yeongsangang River and Seomjingang River environment preservation employees which contravenes the fundamental principle of the Labor Standards Act strictly restricting the reasons for the dismissal.
The government has been implementing 'the five-river environment preservation project' to conserve the major water systems, commenced from 2006. Jobs were created directly by the government and local residents were recruited for the activities of river area patrolling, surveillance and sewage disposal monitoring. All of them are fixed-term contract workers.
In May this year, a Mr. Kim(40-year-old) received a warning notice from the Yeongsangang Watershed Environment Office, reading that "There is a record that you have talked on the phone for long with an official of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, while you were on duty". He applied a remedy with the Jeonnam Regional Labor Relations Commission for unfair warning, as "he does not remember such a telephone talk and the warning is not reasonable".
He refuted in a Commission's meeting for the adjudication that "Even if I had had a phone conversation on duty, there is no rule to restrict the phone calls in the employment rules for the environment preservation employees," He continued that "The warning is a disciplinary action equivalent to one-third of the dismissal and accordingly it is too harsh a penalty exceeding the reasons regulated in the Labor Standards Act".
The Jeonnam Regional Labor Relations Commission made a decision in favor of Mr. Kim, endorsing the remedy application. An official of the Commission said that "Both the reason and the disciplinary action are not reasonable, considering that the warning will bring about a significant disadvantage to the employee".
The labor circle pointed out that the government as a big employer in the public sector should check the human resource operation rules if they disrespect the Labor Standards Act.
An official of the Ministry of Environment said that "We are fully aware of the raised points as to the environment preservation employees operation rules," and "We will internally review (the rules for the improvement)".
reported by Jeh Jeong-nam
translated by Kim Sung-jin