Korean Appeals Court Upholds Ban on Korean Teachers’ Union

It looks like unless the KTU gets rid of the fired teachers that it maintains on its rolls it will not be recognized by the government as a legitimate union.  For those unfamiliar with KTU the government decided to take action against the union due to its anti-Park government and pro-North Korean agenda that led to teacher firings.  ROK Heads may also remember that the KTU has a long history of teaching anti-Americanism in the classroom as well:

The Seoul High Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the government’s decision to outlaw a progressive teachers’ union, dealing a blow to the group’s two-year legal battle to stay alive.

The appellate court’s decision to uphold a lower court’s ruling to outlaw the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) effectively removed the legal rights the group has enjoyed since September 2014, when the Seoul High Court issued an injunction to suspend the government’s decision to outlaw the group.

The high court’s decision was expected given a Constitutional Court ruling last year that Article 2 of the Teachers’ Labor Union Law, which bans dismissed teachers from having union memberships, was constitutional. That was the issue that led to the government’s outlawing of the KTU. The KTU argued that the article violated the basic rights of teachers.

“In accordance with the ruling by the Constitutional Court, a claim by the plaintiff that Article 2 of the Teachers’ Labor Union Law was unconstitutional cannot be legally accepted,” said the court Thursday.

The court said the KTU was required to comply with the article that prohibits it from allowing fired teachers to be members.

“As it is apparent that the KTU has been accepting non-education workers as its members, the labor ministry’s notice to outlaw the group is not against the law,” the court added.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.