The court ruled that the military retirement pension, calculated based on the total income of civil servants, should be canceled. The court stated that the military retirement pension should be calculated based on the total income of military personnel.
The Seoul Administrative Court's administrative division 8 (presiding judge) ruled in favor of the plaintiff on Nov. 26 last year in a lawsuit filed by retired military personnel A against the head of the Military Financial Management Group, stating, "Cancel the decision to grant the plaintiff the military pension payment."
A, who served as a soldier for 33 years and retired in 2021, filed an administrative lawsuit last September, claiming that his retirement pay was incorrectly calculated. The government did not pay military personnel their vacation compensation in 2020, and the absence of this compensation was not reflected in the calculation of his retirement pay, which he argued resulted in a disadvantage.
At that time, the government had cut the budget for military vacation compensation due to the need for emergency disaster relief funds amidst the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The court ruled in favor of A. It accepted A's claim that there was a flaw in the calculation of his retirement pay. The court stated, "The retirement pension should be calculated based on the average standard income monthly amount of the entire 'military,' but the Military Financial Management Group applied the average standard income monthly amount of all 'civil servants,' which is unlawful."
It further stated, "Just the fact that the 'average standard income monthly amount of the entire military' was not announced in the law, or that there are difficulties in calculation, does not justify the unlawfulness of not applying the average standard income monthly amount of the entire military."
However, the court did not accept the key argument from A's side that the defendant's decision was unconstitutional. A's side argued that the absence of vacation compensation in the pension calculation put them at a disadvantage compared to other military personnel who retired at a different time, thus violating the constitutional principle of equality.
In response, the court noted, "It is nearly impossible to ensure that the retirement pension amount is calculated completely fairly due to technical limitations in the calculation methods and legislation, and the legislator has broad discretion in deciding how to reflect the changing vacation compensation in the retirement pension year by year."