Seoul City Dismisses 'Public Official Villains' for Unauthorized Absences and Verbal Abuse

Judged No Willingness to Improve Despite Lowest Work Evaluation
Unauthorized Absence and Abusive Language Toward Colleagues Cause Dismissal

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has dismissed civil servant A, who repeatedly verbally abused colleagues and was absent without leave. According to the Seoul City Bulletin issued on the 9th, A, who was suspended from duty after receiving the lowest grade in last year's performance evaluation, was dismissed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Dismissal means the revocation of civil servant status, effectively a termination. This is the first time Seoul has dismissed a civil servant based on a performance evaluation.

Seoul City has dismissed public official A, who repeatedly verbally abused colleagues and was absent without leave. According to the Seoul City Bulletin issued on the 9th, Seoul City dismissed A, who had been suspended from duty after receiving the lowest rating in last year's performance evaluation.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

Earlier, on the 2nd, Seoul held a personnel committee meeting to review whether to dismiss civil servant A. A had received the lowest performance grade, "Ga," in the November evaluation last year. From mid-October last year, A was absent without approved sick leave, and after establishing a labor union, engaged in inappropriate behavior such as coercing employees to join and verbally abusing those who refused, which became problematic.

A was suspended from duty after failing to attend the first training session (2 weeks) for those graded "Ga" in December. It is known that A also continued to miss the second training session (3 months). Since the end of last year, A has not responded at all to communications sent by the city via phone, text, or mail, prompting the city to announce the disciplinary action through the official gazette.

In 2019, Seoul introduced the "Ga" evaluation system, the lowest grade in the four-tier performance rating system ("Su," "Woo," "Yang," "Ga"), to prevent so-called "office villains" who neglect duties and harm colleagues. Receiving the lowest "Ga" grade results in no performance bonuses, a six-month restriction on seniority increments, transfer measures, and can lead to suspension from duty under the Local Public Officials Act.