'Taxi firms can give low grade on elderly cabbies' health condition automatically'

Taxis wait for passengers near Seoul Station in this file photo. A court recently ruled it was acceptable for a taxi company to automatically give a low rating on an elderly driver's health condition in a professional evaluation. Korea Times file

By Kim Rahn

It is acceptable for a taxi company to automatically give an elderly driver a low rating on their health condition in a professional evaluation, a court said. The Seoul High Court said Wednesday that it recently ruled the company's dismissal of a 66-year-old driver as fair.

The ruling has come amid increasing traffic accidents involving elderly drivers.

The Seoul High Court said Wednesday that it recently ruled in favor of the company's dismissal of a 66-year-old driver.

The driver, whose name was withheld, had been renewing his contract with the company every year for five years since 2012. As the company decided not to renew the contract in 2017, the driver, then 66, sought help from the National Labor Relations Commission, which ruled it was an unfair dismissal. The company then filed the lawsuit.

According to the court, the company evaluates its drivers every year and renews contracts with drivers who obtain more than 70 points out of 100.

Of the evaluation criteria, health accounts for 20 of the total 100, and the company automatically deducts 10 points for drivers aged 65 or over.

Both local and high courts ruled such a deduction was proper.

“For passengers' safety, a taxi driver has to maintain a high level of concentration and fulfill duties to take caution during long hours of driving,” the high court said in the ruling.

It is likely that elderly drivers compared to younger drivers have lower capability required for driving, such as eyesight, endurance, stamina and reflexes, it said.

“It increases the chance of traffic accidents, which could lead to passengers getting hurt or the company suffering losses. So it doesn't seem unfair for the company to take such factors into consideration and deduct the points automatically,” the court said.

The high court added it was proper for the company to deduct more points by taking into consideration two traffic accidents, which the driver had caused in 2011 right before starting to work at the firm, in the evaluation.

“A taxi driver's history of traffic accident is closely related to passenger safety. So it is proper for a taxi company to reflect accidents, which took place even before the employment contract period, in the assessment.”