'Sexual Harassment' Taebaek City Sports Council Chairman Faces Re-Discipline... Gangwon Sports Council to Re-Deliberate on the 29th

In response to the Taebaek City Sports Council's claim of 'double discipline,' the legal community points to "misuse of legal principles"
Sports community: "Urgent need for measures to correct lenient dispositions and the trick of misusing legal principles"

Ahead of the re-discipline of Ryu Chul-ho, chairman of the Taebaek City Sports Council, who received a light disciplinary action over controversy including sexual harassment and verbal abuse against employees, the issues of lenient dispositions and misuse of legal principles within the sports community have come to the surface.

Putting together Yonhap News coverage on the 28th, the Gangwon Provincial Sports Council will hold a Sports Fair Play Committee on the 29th to deliberate again on the disciplinary proposal for Chairman Ryu.

Earlier, in March, the Sports Ethics Center pointed out serious flaws in the disciplinary sentencing and procedure and demanded re-discipline of Chairman Ryu, but in late May the Taebaek City Sports Council repeated its conclusion that, since a "reprimand" disciplinary action had already been imposed for the same matter, it could not impose discipline again under the principle prohibiting double discipline.

Afterward, as employees who suffered harm such as workplace abuse of power raised objections, this re-deliberation procedure proceeded.

Regarding this matter, the legal community raised the point that the principle prohibiting double discipline put forward by the Taebaek City Sports Council is not legally valid.

Daeryun LLC Attorney Jeon Hyo-chul, who has served as chairman of the Sports Fair Play Committee of the Seoul Badminton Association, noted, "Regarding the principle prohibiting double punishment stipulated in the Constitution, the Constitutional Court interprets it as limited to the exercise of the state's penal authority," adding, "A disciplinary disposition by a sports council is not an exercise of the state's penal authority, so the principle prohibiting double punishment does not apply."

The purport is that internal discipline within an organization such as a sports council is merely an administrative sanction for maintaining organizational order, and thus is not an area to which the principle prohibiting double punishment applies.

The Supreme Court has also ruled that, for the same misconduct, even if criminal punishment and internal organizational disciplinary disposition are imposed together, they do not violate the principle of double jeopardy because the purpose and nature of the two dispositions differ.

It was also pointed out that, since the Sports Ethics Center judged it difficult to regard the reprimand disposition as a lawful final disciplinary action, this case can hardly be said to have been "finalized" procedurally either.

Park Ji-hoon, an attorney at the law firm Chungjung with extensive litigation experience in the sports field, pointed out, "The principle prohibiting double discipline is the principle that if one has been disciplined for a certain matter and 'the punishment has been completed,' one cannot be disciplined again for the same matter," adding, "This case cannot apply this principle because the type and content of the discipline against Chairman Ryu itself have not been finalized."

Attorney Park explained, "The law stipulates that even if a Sports Fair Play Committee within a city/county/district sports council has resolved on a certain discipline, the Sports Ethics Center, as a higher-level body, may demand discipline or issue a corrective order if it judges the type or content of that discipline to be inappropriate," adding, "As long as the Sports Ethics Center is examining this case, the reprimand discipline against Chairman Ryu has neither been decided nor finalized."

He added, "The Taebaek City Sports Council's dismissal disposition is legally void and has no legal effect whatsoever."

Within and outside the sports community, points were also raised about the urgent need for measures to correct lenient dispositions and the trick of misusing legal principles.

Kim Hyun-soo, executive chairman of the Sports Citizens' Solidarity, who served as head of the National Human Rights Commission's Special Investigation Team on Sports Human Rights, criticized, "The problem that disciplinary reductions are carried out as a matter of custom in the sports community has long been raised," adding, "Even though the National Human Rights Commission recommended in July 2020 that the Korea Sports Council correct the tangle of lenient handling or delayed handling of those subject to discipline, it has not been improved."

Chairman Kim emphasized, "To solve this problem, the National Human Rights Commission at the time recommended the 'establishment of an integrated disciplinary committee,'" adding, "Only by creating an integrated body with expertise and independence and applying consistent sentencing standards and standards for consideration of mitigating circumstances can results that victims can accept be produced."

Attorney Jeon Hyo-chul suggested a plan to specify in the regulations a clause stating that "when a re-discipline request is received, it cannot be dismissed on the grounds of double jeopardy, and a substantive review must be conducted."

He also put forward the opinion of supplementing it through "legislative theory," such as inserting a provision that "when the subject of discipline is an executive, the higher-level body directly invokes the disciplinary authority."

Kang Rae-hyuk, an attorney at the law firm Hyemyung who has served as head of the legal affairs team and a member of the legislation and reward/discipline committee of the Korea Sports Council, also noted, "It seems necessary to supplement the Sports Fair Play Committee regulations so that, for matters on which the Sports Ethics Center's review has not been completed, the sports organization cannot suspend or dispose of disciplinary procedures until the investigation and disposition decision comes down."

Earlier, in July 2024, Chairman Ryu made inappropriate remarks to employee Ms. A, such as "Look at her build. She looks like she'd be a D-cup" and "If all the women fall away, I'll have to grope her breasts," while having a meal with drinks together with business associates at a barbecue restaurant.

In October 2022, when he visited Ulsan during the National Sports Festival, he suddenly said "I have to go look at some land" and had someone drive round-trip to Wonju for six hours, unfairly ordering private business during work hours.

In addition, more than ten instances of misconduct were revealed, including forcing employees to distribute return gifts from his child's wedding, compelling them to take photos, cursing at employees in public, and pressuring them not to disclose the harm externally.

The Taebaek branch of the Central Regional Employment and Labor Office issued a corrective order and a fine to the city sports council based on the employees' harm.

The city sports council's Sports Fair Play Committee also, after deliberation and re-deliberation of the case, imposed the light disciplinary action of "reprimand" on Chairman Ryu in May last year and finalized the result.

Afterward, in the same month, the Sports Ethics Center delivered to the city sports council a decision demanding a disciplinary resolution, but the city sports council's Sports Fair Play Committee issued a dismissal decision in August last year.

In October last year, a victim applied for re-deliberation, but the Gangwon Provincial Sports Council's Sports Fair Play Committee rejected it.

Regarding this matter, the Sports Ethics Center in March demanded re-discipline on the grounds that, while an executive who committed verbal abuse and sexual harassment should be subject to discipline of suspension of qualification or heavier, the reprimand disposition imposed on Chairman Ryu did not fit the sentencing.

It also determined that no discipline had been carried out regarding the part where secondary harm occurred during the investigation of Chairman Ryu's workplace harassment of employees, and demanded that the matter be re-examined, but the Taebaek City Sports Council again issued a dismissal disposition at the disciplinary deliberation held in May.

taetae@yna.co.kr

Kang Tae-hyun (taetae@yna.co.kr)

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'Sexual Harassment' Taebaek City Sports Council Chairman Faces Re-Discipline... Gangwon Sports Council to Re-Deliberate on the 29th (Go to Link)