"Answer Sheet Shredding" Group Lawsuit by Examinees... Court Orders "Payment of 1.5 Million Won" in Mandatory Settlement

The court has issued a compulsory mediation decision requiring the Human Resources Development Service of Korea to pay 1.5 million won to 147 examinees who suffered damages due to the shredding of their answer sheets by an employee.

In May of last year, officials from the Human Resources Development Service of Korea are apologizing regarding the answer sheet shredding incident during the 'Regular Engineer and Industrial Engineer 1st Practical Exam' at the Government Sejong Complex.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 1st, the Seoul Western District Court's 1st Mediation Division held a mediation hearing on the 30th of last month for a damages lawsuit filed by 147 examinees against the Human Resources Development Service of Korea and issued a "decision in lieu of mediation" (compulsory mediation).

Compulsory mediation is a system in civil litigation mediation procedures where the court issues a mediation decision ex officio when the parties fail to reach an agreement. If either the plaintiff or defendant refuses, a formal trial must be held.

The court ordered the Service to compensate the plaintiffs by the 29th and ruled that each party bear their own litigation and mediation costs.

Previously, on April 23 of last year, during the first practical test of the regular engineer examination held at Yeonseo Middle School in Seoul, an incident occurred where answer sheets of 609 examinees were shredded before grading due to an employee's mistake. Additionally, during the investigation, four answer sheets were lost, confirming that a total of 613 examinees' answer sheets were not graded properly, causing damage.

At that time, Oh Soo-bong, then the director of the Service, took responsibility and resigned in May of the same year, and the Service paid compensation of 100,000 won per victim. However, 147 victims filed a class-action lawsuit against the Human Resources Development Service of Korea on June 1 of last year, demanding 5 million won per person, totaling 735 million won in damages.