South Korean court rules firing for taking prize mug unfair

A court ruled that an employee who was fired for taking without permission a mug set prepared as a gift for customers was unfairly dismissed.
According to a Korean legal professional on the 13th, the Seoul Administrative Court's 3rd Administrative Division recently granted relief for wrongful dismissal to a company that is a regular distributor of luxury imported cars.
The court ruled against the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the Central Labor Relations Commission seeking the cancellation of the decision on the reexamination. Company A fired employee B, who had been an employee for nine years, in February last year. B used a service for a client without authorization.
The reason for his dismissal was that he had taken five sets of mugs and one calendar from the company. It was deemed that Mr. B's actions had hindered the performance of his duties and that he had ignored the company's reporting and chain of command.
Mr. B applied for relief with the Chungnam Provincial Labor Relations Commission and the Central Labor Relations Commission, which granted the request. Company A appealed the decision and filed an administrative lawsuit.
The court supported B's argument and stated, "According to accepted social standards, B's actions were not enough to make the continuation of the employment relationship impossible, and
The court ruled that the mugs were not expensive items, costing 20,000 won (about 2,209 yen) each, and that B had given two of the five he had taken out to customers and had taken the remaining three out.
The reason cited was that he had brought the calendar as a gift but had returned it to the company. In addition, it was unclear whether the company had been strictly controlling the taking out of the calendar, and it was not clear that the calendar was simply a gift given to someone without permission.
The court ruled that the mere fact of taking the information was not grounds for disciplinary action, as it could not be considered a violation of the company's chain of command.