A civil servant at Yangyang County Office in Gangwon Province has been dismissed for repeated workplace harassment of sanitation workers, including a so-called "martial law game."
Gangwon Province held a disciplinary committee meeting on the 21st and decided to dismiss A, a 40-year-old Grade 7 driver-position official at Yangyang County, according to the county on Monday. Dismissal is the most severe disciplinary action for civil servants, and Yangyang County plans to execute the measure within this month.
A is accused of repeatedly assaulting, coercing and abusing three sanitation workers (one public service worker and two fixed-term workers) who were under his supervision for several months. A was found to have made sanitation workers get inside blankets and then stomped on them, calling it a "martial law game." When stocks he owned declined in value, A allegedly forced the victims to buy the same stocks, saying "we need to offer sacrifices."
He also made them run behind garbage trucks without letting them board, and forced them to wear underwear of specific colors. A police investigation found that A's offenses amounted to 60 counts of coercion, 60 counts of assault, 10 counts of intimidation and seven counts of insult.
A was previously indicted in detention on these charges and was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison by the Sokcho Branch of Chuncheon District Court on the 15th. The Gangneung branch of the Ministry of Employment and Labor's Central Regional Employment and Labor Office also confirmed the workplace harassment through an ex officio investigation and imposed a fine of 8 million won on Yangyang County Office for neglecting the matter.
The level of discipline for managers has become controversial. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety requested light disciplinary action against two managerial-level officials for their supervisory responsibility, but Gangwon Province concluded with a lower "warning without record" measure.
A warning without record is a cautionary measure for minor misconduct that does not reach the level of formal discipline, and carries no personnel disadvantages such as promotion restrictions. As the measure fell short of what the Interior Ministry had requested, criticism may arise that the response amounts to a slap on the wrist.
The case has exposed how lax the response system for workplace harassment can be within local government civil service, highlighting the need to improve human rights protection systems within public organizations.
The tragedy of franchises, the reality of interior design abuse of power
