The Constitutional Court ruled that it is unconstitutional that no presidential decree has been made for the 23rd year to recognize the careers of teachers appointed to schools installed at juvenile detention centers.
The Constitutional Court on the 23rd found unconstitutional, by a 6-3 vote of the justices, the lawsuit filed by teachers at juvenile detention center schools seeking confirmation of unconstitutionality due to legislative inaction.
The constitutional complaint petitioners were appointed in 2019 as teachers who are general service civil servants at juvenile detention center schools. Ordinary national and public schools can appoint teachers only with the status of education civil servant. By contrast, juvenile detention center schools can appoint teachers as general service civil servants.
Article 30, Paragraph 2 of the Act on the Treatment of Protected Juveniles, etc. (Protected Juveniles Act) provides, "Matters necessary for the career, training, and performance of duties of teachers appointed as general service civil servants shall be prescribed by presidential decree. In this case, they must receive treatment equivalent to teachers (education civil servants) appointed under the Framework Act on Education and the Education Officials Act."
Although this provision took effect in April 2004, a related presidential decree has not been enacted for the 22nd year. Because of this, the petitioners filed a constitutional complaint, saying they received inferior treatment, such as in salary step placement, compared with ordinary teachers. They argued that property rights and the right to equality were violated due to "legislative inaction," a failure to do what should have been done.
For teachers who are education civil servants, master's and doctoral degrees are recognized as career experience and reflected in salary steps, but there is no such provision for teachers who are general service civil servants.
The court said, "The right of teachers who are general service civil servants to receive corresponding treatment on the premise of the same career evaluation as education civil servants is a constitutionally protected property right," adding, "When the president, without a legitimate reason, does not enact an enforcement decree pursuant to the delegation, it infringes property rights."
By contrast, justices Jeong Hyeong-sik, Kim Bok-hyeong, and Jo Han-chang dissented, saying the petition should be dismissed as it was not filed within the time limit. They noted that there are statutory provisions regarding the career recognition and salary step calculation of general service teachers. When a presidential decree is incomplete or insufficient in this way, a constitutional complaint must be filed within one year from the time the petitioners were appointed as teachers, but that did not happen, they said.