Court Rules Firing Was Justified for Employee Who Sold Company Items Slated for Disposal

【Financial News, Jeonju = Kang In, reporter】 A court has ruled that firing an employee who arbitrarily sold company property slated for disposal was justified.
The Jeonju District Court said on the 13th that it had dismissed the claims brought by employee A against the company in a lawsuit seeking to have A’s disciplinary dismissal declared invalid and other relief.
A, an employee of an asset management company, was fired on suspicion of pocketing around 1.02 million won by privately selling items the company had decided to discard during an office move.
A listed shelves, chairs, lockers, sofas, tables and other items classified for disposal on a secondhand trading platform and sold them.
After being fired, A filed a lawsuit against the company, demanding, “Pay me about 83 million won in wages and other amounts I did not receive because of the unfair dismissal.”
But the court rejected A’s arguments. It also dismissed A’s claim for payment of wages.
The court ruled, “All the grounds for disciplinary action in this case are established, and the level of discipline was appropriate,” adding, “The company had a separate employee responsible for managing its fixed assets, and A was not the person in charge of overseeing the office move. It is established that the sale of office furniture and other items was for personal purposes.”
The court further ruled, “Even if the items were no longer in use, they still had recognized economic value, so removing them without authorization constitutes a criminal offense,” and added, “Removing company-owned items without authorization directly undermines the relationship of trust with the employer.”


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