"Offering at Employee Prices"... Secondhand Trading of Cafeteria Meal Tickets Amid High Inflation

"Ordinary people can pretend to be employees and submit meal tickets without any verification. Selling a batch of 5 tickets."

Public institution meal tickets are being traded on a secondhand transaction platform. Carrot capture

Amid rising prices, more ordinary citizens are using cafeterias at major public institutions such as the National Assembly and libraries, leading to active trading of public institution meal tickets on secondhand trading platforms.

On January 16, several posts were found on a secondhand trading platform advertising the bulk sale of meal tickets for cafeterias at various public institutions and companies. Listings included the sale of ten 5,000-won meal tickets for the National Library of Korea for 30,000 won, as well as meal tickets for cafeterias at the Public Procurement Service, tax offices, and district offices.

Sellers can dispose of meal tickets for cafeterias they no longer use, while buyers benefit from lower prices at institutional cafeterias compared to regular restaurants, helping them save on living expenses. Some transactions highlight the advantage that employee meal tickets, which include internal discounts, are cheaper than regular meal tickets. On Danggeun, a secondhand trading platform, there was a post selling batches of ten employee meal tickets for the National Assembly Library at 4,800 won each. When inquired, the seller responded that there were no special verification procedures or crackdowns for using employee meal tickets at the cafeteria, so it should be fine. However, a few days later, the post was restricted for violating the 'government-supported goods trading' policy.

Danggeun restricts secondhand trading only for employee meal tickets used at the National Assembly cafeteria. An official from the National Assembly Secretariat explained, "We requested Danggeun to restrict the sale because employee meal tickets, which are provided to employees at a discounted rate, could undermine the purpose of employee welfare if sold to the general public. There is no explicit regulation prohibiting direct transactions, but we made the request because such actions do not align with the intended purpose."

Lee Unghyuk, a professor of police studies at Konkuk University, stated, "Meal tickets provided to public institution employees are their personal property, so selling unused tickets is up to the individual." He added, "However, if someone sells their meal tickets and then obtains new ones to use them again, this would cause financial loss to the government that provided the funds and could constitute obstruction of business or embezzlement."