The Constitutional Court has ruled that even if a university professor is a member of a teachers' union, unlike elementary and secondary school teachers, the professor may engage in political activities.
On the 23rd, the Constitutional Court delivered a decision that the parts of the Act on the Establishment and Operation, etc., of Teachers' Unions (Teachers' Union Act) prohibiting political activities by university faculty unions—specifically the provisions concerning teachers' unions—are unconstitutional, with a 7 (unconstitutional) to 2 (constitutional) opinion among the justices.
Earlier, in September 2018, the court found unconstitutional the Teachers' Union Act that excluded university professors from those eligible to establish a teachers' union. As a result, when the revised Teachers' Union Act took effect on June 9, 2020, university professors who joined a union also became subject to the Teachers' Union Act along with kindergarten and elementary and secondary school teachers.
At the same time, university professors who joined unions became subject to Article 3 of the Teachers' Union Act, which says, "A teachers' union must not engage in any political activities."
In response, the National Professors Labor Union filed a constitutional complaint, arguing that the Teachers' Union Act, which bans political activities by university professors, is unconstitutional. The claim was that it infringes professors' rights to equality, political expression and freedom of association, academic freedom, and the rights to organize and to engage in collective bargaining.
Previously, in 2014, the court held that the Teachers' Union Act prohibiting political activities by elementary and secondary school teachers does not violate the Constitution. The issue was whether university professors, who newly became eligible to join a teachers' union in 2020, could also be banned from political activities.
The court first considered that, under the Political Parties Act and the Public Official Election Act, university professors may become party members and may run for public office or engage in election campaigning.
Under the Teachers' Union Act, only professors among university faculty are prohibited from political activities. Instructors may engage in political activities even if they have joined a union. Also, labor unions are not banned from political activities across the board.
The court said, "University faculty teach adult college students and have academic research as their essential duties," adding, "The legal system reflects this by allowing, unlike for elementary and secondary school teachers, party membership and election campaigning." It then decided that the challenged provisions of the Teachers' Union Act violate the Constitution because they infringe on the petitioners' right to equality.
Justices Kim Bok-hyung and Cho Han-chang dissented. They said that even if political activities by a university faculty union are partially restricted, that cannot be said to outweigh the public interest in ensuring political neutrality in education and guaranteeing students' right to be educated, and they concluded that the challenged provisions do not violate the Constitution.