Fired for rejecting romantic advances: Civic group reveals bizarre dismissal cases

A local civic group recently revealed its analysis of 46 consultation cases involving employees of small businesses, the majority of which were related to what the employees saw as wrongful dismissal from work.

The Workplace Gapjil 119 looked into their consultations in 2023 involving employees of workplaces of fewer than five workers and found that 27 of them were cases related to dismissal.

In one such case, the employee was fired after packing their own lunch instead of eating with co-workers. The attempt to save on lunch money was met with icy responses from the employee's superiors, who told them to "leave if you are just going to do as you please."

Another employee said they were subject to a romantic advance by the boss, and their rejection led to the termination of the work contract.

South Korea's Labor Standards Act stipulates the working conditions for employees. But many of the clauses are not applicable to smaller businesses of fewer than five employees, except for the employment contract, wage slip, minimum wage, severance pay and maternity leave.

For example, Article 23-1 that stipulates an employer shall not dismiss, lay off, suspend or transfer an employee without justifiable cause is not applied to such small businesses, and neither is Article 28, which covers request for remedy from unfair dismissal.

This means those running a small business do not have to justify the dismissal of an employee. They only have to tell the employees of their pending termination in advance, in accordance with Article 26.

Small businesses are not subject to legal clauses stipulating working hours, overtime or paid leave, meaning business owners are left to abide by their own conscience when it comes to their employees.

In another case revealed by Gapjil 119, a worker had to be hospitalized for three days due to a neck injury sustained during work. The person had three days of pay docked from the next paycheck.

The civic group's analysis showed that in 38 of the 46 consultation cases, the employee had also been subject to workplace bullying or sexual harassment.

The civic group said the Labor Standard Act should be applied to smaller businesses as well, saying such a move will solve the issue of workers facing workplace bullying and unfair dismissal.