Court Rules Salary Cut Unfair for Military Civilian Employee Who Refused Superior's Order to Stay Past Quitting Time

A court has ruled that disciplinary action consisting of a salary cut was unfair for a civilian employee of the military who refused a superior's instruction to identify and report meeting attendees, stating, "I need to leave work."

The ruling was based on the ground that the instruction was unrelated to military duties.

The 12th Administrative Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Kang Jae-won) recently ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by a civilian military employee, identified as A, against their unit to cancel the disciplinary action.

Employee A had previously faced demotion after refusing a superior's directive to "investigate and report on the purpose of an upcoming meeting and which other units will be attending," responding instead, "It is time to leave work so I will go, and I will hand over the task to someone else."

The unit concluded that employee A violated the obligation to obey lawful commands from a superior under the Military Service Act.

Although the Ministry of National Defense's Military Civilian Appeal Review Committee later lowered the disciplinary level from demotion to a salary cut, employee A filed an administrative lawsuit to challenge this decision.

The court sided with employee A.

The court reasoned that a superior's official command stipulated under the Military Service Act must entail imposing military duties, whereas the superior's instruction to employee A was unrelated to military obligations.

Previously, employee A also stood trial on charges of insubordination, but that court similarly acquitted employee A, judging that "the order in this case pertained to administrative tasks unrelated to imposing military duties."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.