Episode that came out in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” yesterday (August 4th)… In reality, it was a heartbreaking story
As the episode “Mir Life Insurance” was dealt with in episode 12 of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”, an incident that became the actual motif is drawing attention again. This is “NACF in-house couple dismissal” that occurred 23 years ago.
In ENA’s Wednesday-Thursday drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo“, which aired on August 4th, a female employee of Mir Life Insurance, who was fired during the restructuring process, filed a lawsuit against the company.
In the drama, Mir Life Insurance’s human resources manager called in a female employee and recommended that she resign voluntarily, citing the company’s policy that “if one of the in-house couple does not retire voluntarily, the husband will be subject to unpaid leave”. In the process, he also said, “Should I block your husband’s path?” and “A supportive wife is for times like this.”
Some of the fired employees made an issue of this and engaged in a legal battle. Lawyer Ryu Jae-sook (Lee Bong-ryun) spoke for them and condemned the gender-discriminatory restructuring.
The episode covered in this day’s broadcast was reconstructed with the motif of “NACF in-house couple dismissal” in 1999.
According to Yonhap News in 1999, right after the IMF crisis, in February that year, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) pensioned off one out of every 762 in-house couples. In this process, 688 people (91% of layoffs) were female employees.
The human resources manager’s words “Do it for your husband” in the drama are known to have been said by a bank’s branch manager in the actual incident. Two female employees, who worked as contract workers, felt unfair about this and filed a lawsuit. Women’s organizations, including the Korean WomenLink, also gave their support. After years of legal battles, the Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that it was “not unfair dismissal”.
In the ruling, the court ruled, “In a situation where NACF desperately needed manpower reduction ahead of integration with the Korea Federation of Livestock Cooperatives, they formed the Restructuring Emergency Response Committee, set their own standards as well as implemented the honorary retirement system and the purification order leave system in parallel with the consent of the union. It does not appear that NACF forced the plaintiffs to resign.”
Lawyer Ryu Jae-sook in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” also existed. Lawyer Kim Jin, who was in charge of defending the fired women at that time, shared the story after the incident through a number of media outlets.
Attorney Kim cited the case as “the most heartbreaking thing” during an interview with Money Today, saying, “I lost confidence as a lawyer after being judged to lose this case, but in retrospect, I think I was able to establish the logic necessary for the expansion of women’s rights.”
Attorney Kim recalled, “I was encouraged by those involved in the case, who must have been suffering much more than I, a new lawyer then. Young lawyers working with me must have been nervous, but they always shouted ‘Fighting’ without showing any sign of anxiety.”
Attorney Kim added, “(The women who were fired after the incident) said that they felt relieved after having tried the case. When I received their thank you greeting ‘It’s a pity that we can’t see our lawyer often anymore’, I really wanted to crawl into a hole and die! After their dismissal, they were either working as contract workers with half their salary at the same branch or switching to contract positions at other banks, but they were always brave and did their best rather than regrets, showing pride that banks will not be able to do such things in the future.”
Source: Wikitree
