Act on Establishing and Operating Union of Public Service Worker(AEOUPSW) Section 3(1) prohibits public service workers and its union from doing political activities. And the Act Section 11 also prohibits them from going on strike.
The representatives of the Union had planed national mass meeting in the Seoul City Hall Square with other civil associations and Opposition Parties, and they participated in the meeting on July 2009. In addition the meeting was on Sunday. They had criticized and picketed government policies of the president, irregular worker dismissal, bill of speech reform etc. in the meeting. Furthermore they had supported declaration of the current situation by Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union. The Seoul Central District Court held that their activities above violated both the AEOUPSW Section 3(1) and a duty of full concentration while on duty. Finally they were fined two million won, one million won etc. each other.
An author emphasized three points in this article.
First political activities should be interpreted narrowly and strictly. Now Public Service Workers have right to establish union, do union activities, and enter into a collective agreement. Accordingly their peaceful political activities, that is, pickets criticizing government policy or crying political slogans through the Union, should be excluded in principle from political activities of the Section 3(1).
Second a duty of full concentration should be generally limited to while on duty. The duty is equal to the worker’s duty of offering its work in good faith on the contract of employment in private sector. It should be interpreted that the duty has nothing to do with the Union activities that were done in outside of a company and on Sunday like in this case above.
Finally even though political activities of the public service worker union are unlawful, a criminal penality should not be easily or directly punished only because it is unlawful. Because the activities have an aspect of not only freedom of speech, but also speaking their political ideas. Accordingly a criminal responsibility with respect to union political activities must be recognized under some restrictions.