By Kim Hyun-bin
The Constitutional Court ruled Monday that college professors can establish a union, declaring the law on them forming or joining unions, which denies professors the right to organize, was unconstitutional.
The court ruling is expected to open the way for the Korea Professors Union (KPU), which is not recognized officially, to become a legal group.
Seven out of nine justices voted that the law was unconstitutional in the case filed by the KPU and requested by the Seoul Administrative Court.
To prevent social turmoil from the sudden change, the court set a grace period, asking the National Assembly to revise the law by March 31, 2020, until which the current law will remain effective.
Under the current teachers' law, grade school teachers are allowed to establish unions, while professors are not.
The Constitutional Court said rejecting the right of public and private university professors to set up a union was an unnecessary restraint.
“Most universities' recruitment procedures for professors have changed over the years, reducing tenureship and job stability. Since 2002, there has been an increase in contract and part-time professors,” the court said. “We have come to a phase where it is necessary to guarantee professors the right to organize in order to enhance their economic and social status with regards to salary, working conditions and welfare.”
The court said private universities operate a council of professors which serves as an advisory body to the university president, or an executive body for the institution's governance system. “However, such a council could only take part in the administration and operation of the university, having no jurisdiction to negotiate professors' working conditions with the university or the Ministry of Education,” it said.
For professors at national universities, who are civil servants, the court said, “It is difficult to say professors have a better social status and working conditions compared to grade school teachers. It is irrational to reject the professors' needs to form a union which aims to enhance their economic and social status.”
However, two justices, Kim Chang-jong and Cho Yong-ho, dissented on the decision, claiming university professors are guaranteed their own independence and autonomy.
In April 2015, the Ministry of Employment and Labor refused to acknowledge the KPU as a legal union, citing the teachers' union act. The KPU then filed a complaint with the Seoul Administrative Court against the labor minister.
In December that year, the union raised the issue of the law's constitutionality, and the administrative court accepted this and asked the Constitutional Court to review the case.