On September 3, the grand bench of the Supreme Court overturned a ruling by a lower court that recognized the legitimacy of the government measure to outlaw the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (Korean Teachers Union) and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court. According to the bench, it was unjust to deprive the Korean Teachers Union of its labor union status on grounds that the organization included dismissed teachers. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the union’s request for the suspension of the effectiveness of the government’s measure. Still, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced, “We will begin the process to withdraw our measure according to the Supreme Court decision.” Thus the Korean Teachers Union will be able to restore its legal status as a labor union seven years after the government notified the organization that it would be delegalized in October 2013 during the Park Geun-hye government. It is fortunate that the judiciary righted the improper measure, albeit belatedly.

At the center of the controversy was the question of whether it was legitimate to outlaw the union for accepting dismissed workers as members. At the time, the labor ministry notified the union that it was no longer a legal union because there were nine dismissed teachers among the more than 60,000 union members. The grounds for such a measure was Article 2, Paragraph 4 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, which stipulates, “an organization shall not be regarded as a trade union… where those who are not workers are allowed to join it,” and Article 9 Paragraph 2 of the law’s enforcement decree: “… if the correction is not performed within the period, they shall notify the trade union in question that it shall not be regarded as a trade union provided for under this Act.” However, the Supreme Court said, “The Trade Union Act has no regulations on the notification of the change of status and does not delegate this issue to the enforcement decree,” and added, “The notification of the organization losing its status as a trade union based on Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the enforcement decree has no legal grounds and so it is illegal.” Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the enforcement decree restricted the three major labor rights guaranteed by the Constitution without any specific and apparent delegation of the law on an issue that the law never stipulated. Therefore this is a violation of the “reservation of law,” meaning that the exercise of executive power must be based on law. The Supreme Court judged Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the enforcement decree, which was the grounds for the government action, as invalid and prevented the government from outlawing any labor union without amending the Trade Union Act and adding relevant articles.

The latest decision by the Supreme Court is in line with the constitutional principle that the right to form a trade union and engage in union activities are a basic right of the citizens and with the legal principle that the exercise of executive power must be grounded on the law in order to protect the liberty and rights of the people. It also agrees with common sense. It is unreasonable to fundamentally restrict the three labor rights of over 60,000 union members just because nine members happen to be dismissed. The conservative government taking away the legal trade union status of the Korean Teachers Union after finding fault with a trivial issue was an attempt to control the union. The Korean Teachers Union spent the following seven years without any protection from the Trade Union Act. In this process, 34 teachers who had worked full time at the union were fired. The Supreme Court under Yang Seung-tae even considered making a deal with the Park Geun-hye government concerning the case for the withdrawal of the government measure against the Korean Teachers Union. The government should quickly take actions to restore normality at the union by reinstating the dismissed teachers according to the intent of the Supreme Court ruling.