Internal Conflict Ahead of Seoul City's Grade 3 Promotion Announcement

Ahead of Announcement of 6 Promotions, Internal Bulletin Posts and Union Comments Raise Questions on Some Candidates' Eligibility

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] As the announcement of the promotion to Grade 3 (Deputy Director) for Seoul city officials approaches, controversy has arisen among employees regarding the suitability of some candidates.

Seoul City announced the "2020 Second Half (effective July 1) Grade 3 Promotion Plan" on the 25th of last month and has begun the formal promotion review process, with the first round of evaluations reportedly conducted on the morning of the 1st. The selection of promotees involves multi-faceted evaluations, a promotion review committee, the first personnel committee, and finally, Mayor Park Won-soon makes the final decision.

However, ahead of the announcement of the promotion candidates, controversies both inside and outside the organization have emerged regarding several candidates. In particular, it was reported that among the promotion candidates, there is a manager involved in a sexual harassment case, prompting employees to post messages such as "Collective responsibility is an empty voice" and "So, does collective responsibility apply or not?" on the internal communication network for Seoul city officials. This appears to criticize the city's policy, announced earlier this year, to impose personnel disadvantages not only on the individual responsible but also on managers through a responsibility system, following three sex-related incidents in Seoul this year.

Alongside this, the Seoul City Officials' Union also issued a statement on the same day titled "Promotion to Grade 3 in the Second Half of 2020... The Promotion of Abusive Leaders is the Beginning of Suffering."

In the statement, the union pointed out that leadership that does not see members as partners but only as entities to follow orders is outdated and difficult to empathize with. It also mentioned that certain promotion candidates are reportedly causing excessive hardship to employees, leading to significant complaints, and that some departments have posted grievances on bulletin boards about being unable to perform their duties properly due to abusive behavior after a change in the section chief.