The court has ruled that a belated correction of an excessively recognized salary grade due to an error in hiring experienced teachers is legal. The Seoul Administrative Court’s 11th Administrative Division dismissed a lawsuit filed by health teacher A against the Seoul North Education Support Office’s superintendent seeking the cancellation of a salary grade recalibration decision.
Starting her career as a nurse at a large hospital and going through organizations like the Employee Welfare Service, A was appointed as a health teacher (level 2) at an elementary school in Seoul in 2018. She was initially recognized with a salary grade of 25 based on her previous experience, and by 2021, she progressed to salary grade 29 through regular promotion.
However, the Education Support Office belatedly realized in 2022, four years after her appointment, that they should have only recognized 50% of her previous experience and reduced A’s salary grade to 24. This resulted in a salary reduction despite her promotion.
Displeased with this decision, A filed an administrative lawsuit after her appeal for review was rejected. She argued that her previous work experience at the Employee Welfare Service should be recognized at 100% in line with the government employee compensation regulations applicable to the job she was hired for. However, the court dismissed her claim, stating that her work at the Employee Welfare Service involved administrative duties, not in a field directly related to health teaching such as nursing, physical therapy, or occupational therapy.
Although A claimed that she had no fault in trusting the Education Support Office’s initial decision to recognize 100% of her experience as a matter of public opinion, the court also did not accept this argument. The court acknowledged the Education Support Office’s mistake but deemed the correction of the salary grade in accordance with the government employee compensation regulations as justified, as it corrected the error when it was identified.
Furthermore, the court emphasized that the government employee compensation regulations do not consider the intent or fault of the appointing authority as a criterion for salary grade corrections and stated that the responsibility of the defendant does not affect the legality of the decision. The court also asserted that the belated recognition of the salary grade due to a mistake by the administrative agency cannot be viewed as a matter of public opinion, and maintaining an incorrectly determined salary grade does not align with the public interest of setting fair salary grades in the teaching community.