A progressive teachers’ union on Monday urged the government to abandon the effort to outlaw it, holding President Park Geun-hye’s administration responsible for the commotion caused by the ongoing battle over the group’s legal status.
“The attempts to outlaw the KTU stem from the president’s hostility toward the KTU,” the group said in a press conference held at its Seoul headquarters. “The Park administration should now abandon its effort to strip (us of) our legal status and accept the KTU as its partner for progress in education.”
It also blasted the Education Ministry for causing confusion in schools in a desperate bid to neutralize the group, urging it to drop its “unreasonable” attempts to punish KTU members.
Last October, the Labor Ministry announced that it would deregister the KTU as a legitimate trade union because it disregarded Article No. 2 of the law for education workers that forbids dismissed teachers from joining unions. In November, the Seoul Administrative Court accepted the KTU’s request to temporarily retain its legal status until the legal proceedings are concluded.
While a landmark ruling in June ruled that the KTU should have its legal status revoked, the Seoul High Court on Friday upheld the decision by the lower court to consider the union a legitimate trade union for the time being.
The most recent court decision has effectively nullified the Education Ministry’s attempts to brand the KTU as illegal. Within hours of the June ruling, the government had announced it would withdraw all support for the group and revoke its right to engage in collective bargaining talks with the government.
But the flashpoint of the dispute was its order for all full-time union workers to return to their teaching posts within weeks. After pressuring the local education superintendents to punish teachers who did not comply, the ministry announced last week it would override their authority to hand out disciplinary action itself.
Friday’s ruling sparked criticism against the Education Ministry for hastily pushing forward with follow-up measures even before the Supreme Court had reached a decision. Several education superintendents had urged the government to wait for the final ruling before carrying out disciplinary actions.
“If I had dismissed them (noncomplying KTU members) as instructed by the ministry, I would have had to reinstate them today,” said Park Jong-hoon, education chief for South Gyeongsang Province, on his Facebook page Sunday. “The Education Ministry should refrain from abusing its powers to incite chaos, and should instead respect the law and the autonomy (of education offices).”
In the wake of Friday’s ruling, the legitimacy of Article No. 2 will also be questioned as the Seoul High Court also accepted the KTU’s request to determine whether the cited article is unconstitutional.
“Because the Seoul High Court pointed out the unconstitutional nature of the article, the legal procedures related to the group must be suspended until the Constitutional Court reaches a decision,” said Shin In-su, a lawyer and legal adviser for the KTU.
Korea’s labor law prohibits dismissed workers from joining trade unions, but the Supreme Court in 2004 ruled that the cited law should only be applied to unions for specific employers and not unions that cover an entire industry or occupation.
Despite the precedent, the June ruling said that different standards should be applied to a teachers’ union because teachers cannot be treated like other workers, a statement with which the appellate court disagreed.
The Labor Ministry said Monday they would appeal the case. Officials from the Education Ministry have said they are baffled by Friday’s decision and are discussing follow-up measures, insinuating that the tumultuous standoff between the government and the controversial union is far from over.
By Yoon Min-sik (
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)
