Court Rules "Contract Expiration During Maternity Leave Is Unfair Dismissal"

Recognition of Renewal Expectation Rights for Contract Researchers

The court ruled that notifying a contract researcher on maternity leave of the termination of their employment contract constitutes unfair dismissal.

Seoul Administrative Court.

According to the legal community on the 25th, the Administrative 14th Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Chief Judge Song Gak-yeop) ruled against Busan National University Hospital in a lawsuit seeking to cancel the unfair dismissal relief reconsideration ruling issued by the Central Labor Relations Commission.

Ms. A had been working as a research staff member under an employment contract with Busan National University Hospital since January 2019. She renewed her contract three times while working, and when the Busan National University Hospital consortium was assigned a new project until 2028, she resigned effective January 1, 2021. On the same date, she signed a new one-year employment contract to participate in the new project. Ms. A renewed this new contract once and was working the following year when she became pregnant and took annual leave and maternity leave from October 1 to December 31 of that year. On December 6, the hospital notified Ms. A that her contract would expire on the 31st and that she would be dismissed.

Ms. A filed an unfair dismissal relief application with the local labor commission, but after it was dismissed, she requested a reconsideration by the Central Labor Relations Commission. The Central Labor Relations Commission accepted Ms. A’s application, recognizing her expectation of contract renewal, and the hospital filed an administrative lawsuit claiming it was a lawful contract termination due to expiration of the contract period.

The court recognized Ms. A’s expectation of contract renewal. The bench stated, “The contract employment regulations stipulate that ‘the contract period shall be less than two years but may be renewed if necessary,’ clearly leaving open the possibility of contract renewal,” and added, “In particular, the research contract employment guidelines applicable to researchers assume that employment contracts are renewed annually according to changes in research projects and can be maintained for a long period.”

Furthermore, the court found no reasonable grounds for the hospital’s refusal to renew the employment contract. The court said, “It is difficult to see that the nature of the research projects and tasks Ms. A was involved in fundamentally changed from around 2023, and no objective evidence was submitted to confirm any lack of Ms. A’s work ability,” and “Based solely on the evidence submitted by the hospital, it is difficult to find a reasonable reason to refuse contract renewal.”