Seoul Metro workers demand retirement at age 60
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A subway train driver prepares for the day. A total of 232 retired Seoul Metro employees claim the law allows them to work until the end of this year. / Korea Times Photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Lee Kyung-min
A group of retired Seoul Metro officials filed a lawsuit Tuesday, demanding that the company maintain employment contracts with them by the end of this year, in accordance with what its interpretation of the newly-set retirement age of 60.
A total of 232 workers born in 1956 filed a suit with the Seoul Central District Court against the subway operator after it terminated contracts with them on June 30 citing the company regulation.
According to company policy, revised jointly by management and labor unions of the city-run corporation in 2014, the retirement age was increased to 60 from 58, with an attached clause dictating that those who were born in 1956 retire on June 30 this year.
However, in May the National Assembly passed a revised bill, mandating companies to set the retirement age at 60, and those already having set the age lower than 60 should ramp it up to 60.
Those born between July 1 and Dec. 31, 1956, sought the opinion of the regional labor office supervised by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which sided with them saying the firm should terminate contracts with workers on their respective birthdays, when they actually become 60, for fairness.
The workers, who were forced to retire despite this, claim that they now should be eligible to work until the end of this year, as stated by a separate company policy that set Dec. 31 as the day of retirement for workers.
In response, Seoul Metro said the workers are extremely protective of their self-interest.
“They were beneficiaries of the two extra years of work and wages following the 2014 revision of the company regulation, and it is greedy of them to call for the expansion of the scope of the law in their favor,” a company official said.
“We will fight to the end of the lawsuit to prove that their claim is wrong.”