Cheongju City Grade 7 Public Official Sends "Personnel Power Abuse Exposure" Email to All Employees

"Claimed Harassment Despite Outstanding Work Performance"
Also Filed 100-Won Compensation Lawsuit Against Mayor

An employee at the 7th grade level of Cheongju City Hall sent an expos? email to multiple recipients stating that "I am reporting the abusive culture reinforced by the current mayor on behalf of many victimized public officials," and also filed a lawsuit claiming 100 won in damages against the mayor, Yonhap News reported on the 16th.

A administrative officer A of Cheongju City sent an email titled 'Starting a 100-won damage claim lawsuit' to about 4,500 employees through the internal email network of City Hall that morning. In the email, he claimed, "With hope for the slogan centered on work and performance, I took on excessive work myself and sacrificed. However, due to the entrenched vested interests, I did not receive appropriate compensation or incentives, nor even praise or encouragement."

Officer A also revealed that on the 9th, he filed a damage claim lawsuit demanding payment of 100 won against Mayor Beom-seok Lee of Cheongju City. In the publicly disclosed complaint, he stated, "Despite outstanding work performance, I was subjected to workplace harassment. The cause of the harassment is the mayor," and added, "The mayor conducted personnel appointments based not on performance but on 'my people,' mainly from certain schools," urging the city to conduct a fact-finding investigation into personnel abuse.

Cheongju City Hall Temporary Office.
Photo by Yonhap News

It was reported that Officer A has been on sick leave since the 2nd. His family visited his department on the 6th, submitting a medical certificate indicating that Officer A suffers from mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, and lodged a protest. Officer A’s family raised issues including ▲ changing the term 'notification of house search' to 'house search' without consulting Officer A ▲ not asking 'Did you have a good trip?' despite Officer A returning from a 7-day leave ▲ the cancellation of a planned 2-night, 3-day benchmarking trip to Jeju Island by 11 district office employees related to house search due to opposition from the manager ▲ the manager’s nitpicking over numbers causing delays in approval.

Manager Accused as 'Perpetrator' Visits Press Room to Explain

In response, B, the head of Officer A’s department, visited the press room and denied the allegations, stating, "I have never engaged in abusive behavior." Regarding the change in terminology to 'house search,' B explained, "I suggested to administrative officer C, who drafted the official document, that since the official project name this year is 'House Search for Chronic Tax Delinquents,' it would be better to unify the term as 'house search.'" Regarding the criticism about not greeting after leave, B said, "Officer A greeted me before going on leave, so I said, 'Is it a family trip? Have a good trip,' but after returning, Officer A did not greet me, and I also forgot to greet him." He further explained, "Regarding the benchmarking approval in November last year, since Cheongju City’s house search project is the first nationwide excluding Seoul and Gyeonggi, I questioned why we needed to go to Jeju Island and why district office employees unrelated to house search work were going, so I suggested deciding after reviewing the 2023 performance."

Regarding the criticism that nitpicking over numbers made approval difficult, B said, "Numbers are very important due to the nature of the work, and there were several errors in the numbers in the report document, so I called Officer A to ask and instructed him to correct them," adding, "Officer A apologized after correcting the data." It is known that Officer A revised the points and gist of his claims and refiled a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission on the 9th.

The personnel department of Cheongju City stated, "Although it may not be 100% satisfactory, personnel appointments were made based on the Local Public Officials Act, the Local Public Officials Appointment Decree, the basic plan for personnel management, and the principle of work and performance-centered policies of the 8th elected administration," adding, "We will verify the facts regarding the issues raised by Officer A’s side."