“Discriminatory treatment of Fixed-term teachers violates the right to equality”(03-25-2003)
The NHRC issues recommendation to the Education and Human Resources Development Minister to strictly supervise the payment of remuneration during school vacations and severance pay as well as the granting of annual leave to eliminate discrimination against contingent teachers.
In July 2002, contingent teacher A (under fixed term contract) filed a petition against the principal of Hancheon Middle School, Seoul and against the Seoul Metropolitan City Superintendent of Educational Affairs contending that “despite holding a teachers license and carrying out the same work as the regular teachers, [the petition filer] was subject to unfair discriminatory treatment in employment conditions.” The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found that the Hancheon Middle School principal and the superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education had committed a discriminatory act, which violated the right to equality enshrined in article 11 of the Constitution.
Concerning this case, the NHRC carried out an investigation of both the petition filer and the accused, held a hearing on the realities of discrimination faced by fixed-term teachers, and researched data on the treatment of contingent teachers in cities and provinces throughout Korea.
On March 24, 2003, the NHRC issued the following recommendations to the principal of Hancheon Middle School and the superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan City of Education : ▶ to pay “remuneration during school vacations” in cases where contingent teachers are employed for over one semester and are either scheduled to continue as teachers after the school vacation or are carrying out the same work as regular teachers during the school vacation; ▶ to recognize the entire working period spanning the different short-term contracts—excluding school vacation periods—as continuous service when calculating severance pay and to disburse severance pay; ▶ to recognize statutory annual leave; and ▶ to raise the upper limit of the Hobong level (salary class), currently capped at the tenth-class salary level, to eliminate disadvantages to contingent teachers. The NHRC also issued a recommendation to the Education and Human Resources Development Minister to amend the g uidelines relating to contract teachers and undertake strict supervision toward eliminating discrimination against fixed-term teachers in the future.
The NHRC investigation found that the principal of Hancheon Middle School failed to remunerate, during the school vacation, four contingent teachers who had been scheduled to teach for over one year, had been appointed teachers before the 2001 winter vacation and were reappointed after the vacation. The principal avoided severance pay in 52 employment contracts concluded since the year 2000 by making fixed-term contracts that ended with school vacation and subsequently reappointing the teachers at the beginning of the new semester. According to “Guidelines for Managing Contract Teachers” of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the annual leave is not provided to fixed-term teachers and the Hobong level (salary class) is capped at level ten.
In light of the fact that contingent teachers’ salaries are subsidized by the national treasury, the NHRC found that the nonpayment of both remuneration during school vacation and severance pay—a common practice in schools employing fixed-term teachers—constitute a discriminatory act in employment conditions and that setting the upper limit of Hobong level to ten constitutes unfair discrimination when compared to regular teachers who can attain a maximum Hobong level of 40.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development has argued that it cannot grant annual leave to contingent teachers since regular teachers’ annual leave is, in reality, restricted owing to the special characteristics—including school vacations and guaranteeing students’ right to an education—of the teaching profession. Regarding this position, the NHRC presented the opinion that recognition of statutory annual leave and individual teachers’ actual usage of annual leave are two separate issues, and, since non-recognition of statutory annual leave could violate the Labor Standards Act, the ministry must recognize either annual leave in accordance with the annual leave stipulated in article 15 of the Service Regulations on Governmemt Officials or monthly leave as stipulated in the Labor Standards Act.
