"Freedom to Leave a Job"... Employees Who Were Absent After Resignation Notice Found 'Not Guilty'

Protested against slander and unpaid health insurance
Absent for two days after expressing intention to resign
Court: "Concerns over infringement of basic rights" acquitted

Court. Asia Economy DB

Workers who expressed their intention to resign to the management and then did not show up for work were charged with obstruction of business but were acquitted by the court.

According to the legal community on the 7th, the Criminal Division 4 of the Gwangju High Court dismissed the prosecution's appeal in the appellate trial of four defendants, including A (25), who were charged with obstruction of business, and upheld the not guilty verdict from the first trial. The defendants had worked as branch managers at a certain mobile phone sales agency.

In May 2022, they visited B, the operator of the sales store, to protest against B’s habit of badmouthing employees, differential payment of wages, and failure to pay health insurance premiums. When B did not agree to the defendants’ demands for a wage increase, A and others announced their intention to resign and did not come to work for two days. Subsequently, A and others were charged with obstructing company business.

The first and second trial courts ruled, "Workers fundamentally have the right to collective action as a basic right, so strikes do not always constitute obstruction of business," and "The defendants’ actions were carried out suddenly at an unpredictable time for the employer, making it difficult to see that they caused confusion or damage to the employer’s business operations." They further stated, "The freedom of occupational choice naturally includes the freedom to leave a job," and "If simple collective resignation is regarded as a force causing damage by obstructing company business, it may infringe on constitutionally guaranteed basic rights."