[Defendant] Defendant
[Appellant] Public Prosecutor
[Original Judgment] Busan High Court Decision 94No101, decided November 17, 1994
[Order]
The part of the original judgment concerning the violation of the Immigration Control Act (출입국관리법) and the part concerning the violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act (직업안정및고용촉진에관한법률) are reversed, and this part of the case is remanded to the Busan High Court.
[Reasoning]
We examine the grounds of appeal.
1. Before addressing the Public Prosecutor's grounds of appeal, we first examine ex officio the scope of matters subject to review in this appeal.
The court of first instance in this case found the defendant guilty of all the charges against him and sentenced him to one year of imprisonment with a two-year suspension of execution. In the appellate court, to which only the defendant appealed, the court found the defendant guilty only with respect to the violation of the Immigration Control Act, and acquitted him of the charges of forgery of official documents and uttering thereof on the ground of lack of evidence, and also acquitted him of the charge of violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act on the ground that it did not constitute a crime. However, since the part concerning the violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act was found to be in an imaginary concurrence relationship (상상적 경합) with the aforementioned guilty part, the appellate court did not separately pronounce a not-guilty verdict in the order for that part, and rendered a judgment pronouncing not guilty in the order only with respect to the forgery of official documents and uttering thereof, which were in a substantive concurrence relationship (실체적 경합). Only the Public Prosecutor appealed against this appellate judgment, and in the notice of appeal, the Public Prosecutor limited the scope of the appeal to the violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act.
In such a case, since neither the Public Prosecutor nor the defendant appealed with respect to the forgery of official documents and uttering thereof, which were prosecuted in substantive concurrence with the guilty part and for which not guilty was pronounced, that part shall be deemed to have become final and conclusive as it stands (see this Court's en banc Decision 91Do1402, decided January 21, 1992), and therefore this part cannot be the subject of review in this appeal. However, although it does not formally appear that either the Public Prosecutor or the defendant appealed with respect to the part concerning the violation of the Immigration Control Act, for which the appellate court suspended the pronouncement of sentence, since the Public Prosecutor appealed with respect to the violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act, which is in an imaginary concurrence relationship with the aforementioned guilty part, the crime to be punished and the sentencing for the said part will ultimately depend on whether the violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act is found guilty or not guilty. Therefore, it must be said that the aforementioned guilty part is also subject to review in this appeal (see this Court's en banc Decision 80Do384, decided December 9, 1980).
2. We now examine the Public Prosecutor's grounds of appeal.
With respect to the part of the charges alleging that the defendant, without obtaining a license for a fee-charging job placement business from the Minister of Labor, arranged, from around June 3, 1993, for five Indonesian nationals, including non-indicted person 1, who had entered the country without a visa, to be employed at the aforementioned non-indicted company 2 for six-month terms, and received from the said non-indicted company 2, per employed person, USD 25 per month in the name of agency fees, USD 32 in the name of insurance premiums, USD 250 in the name of severance pay after one year, and USD 50 in the name of local handling fees, and, in the same manner as set forth in the attached list 2, arranged from around April 22, 1993 to around September 23, 1993 for 50 Indonesian nationals, including the aforementioned non-indicted person 1, who had entered without a visa, to be employed at 10 companies, including the aforementioned non-indicted company 2, and received placement fees, thereby operating a fee-charging job placement business and simultaneously arranging for the employment of foreigners who did not possess the qualification to engage in employment activities, the appellate court held as follows: Article 10, Paragraph 1 of the former Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act (구 직업안정및고용촉진에관한법률) (before its full amendment by Act No. 4733 on January 17, 1994, into the Employment Security Act (직업안정법)) provides that "a person who intends to operate a fee-charging job placement business shall obtain a license from the Minister of Labor," and Article 30 of the same Act provides for criminal penalties against those who violate the said provision. However, examining the provisions of the said Act and its Enforcement Decree, it is reasonable to interpret that the job seekers or workers referred to in the said Act refer only to Korean nationals, and do not include foreign job seekers or workers who wish to be employed in Korea (whereas, unlike our country, Article 3 of Japan's Employment Security Act, which corresponds to the equal treatment clause of Article 2 of our Employment Security Act, provides that "no one shall be subject to discriminatory treatment with respect to job placement, vocational guidance, etc. on the grounds of race, nationality, etc.," thereby expressly stating that foreign workers are also subject to its application). Therefore, in the case of a job placement business that arranges for the formation of employment contracts between foreign job seekers or workers and Korean employers, regardless of whether there is a need for regulation (although the domestic employment of foreign workers is in fact prevalent today, the lack of adequate legal and institutional support therefor is causing many social problems), it cannot be considered subject to the regulations set forth in the said provision, and such an interpretation also accords with the spirit of the principle of legality in criminal law (죄형법정주의).
Therefore, the appellate court reversed the judgment of the first instance court, which had found the defendant guilty, holding that the part of the charges concerning the violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act does not constitute a crime under the current laws, and rendered a judgment of not guilty.
However, even if the equal treatment clause of Article 1-2 of the former Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") is worded differently from Japan's Employment Security Act, as noted by the appellate court, the mere form of such a provision does not mean that foreign workers are not subject to the application of the Act.
It is clear that this Act is a statute designed to promote the employment security and employment promotion of workers, and the status of workers, as explicitly stated in Article 5 of the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법), is such that they shall not be subjected to discriminatory treatment regardless of nationality. Furthermore, the legislative purpose of requiring a license from the Minister of Labor for the fee-charging job placement business under Article 10 of the Act is likewise to have the government supervise placement agencies in order to prevent harm to workers arising from indiscriminate job placement, and this provision must be regarded as primarily intended to protect workers. Even though the equal treatment clause of Article 1-2 of the Act states only that a person shall not be subjected to discriminatory treatment on the grounds of sex, religion, social status, marital status, etc., without mentioning nationality, the enumerated grounds are merely illustrative, and there is no reason to conclude that the omission of nationality from the list signifies an intent to exclude foreigners. Nor can it be concluded that, because the domestic employment of foreign workers was not a legal or social issue at the time the Act was enacted, it must necessarily have been excluded. Moreover, there is no basis for concluding that interpreting the Act to include foreign workers would violate the principle of legality in criminal law.
Therefore, the licensing provision concerning the fee-charging job placement business under Article 10 of the Act must be construed as also applying to placement businesses that arrange for foreign workers to be employed by domestic enterprises, and the appellate court's determination, based on a contrary view, that foreign workers are not subject to the Act, is an error of law based on a misunderstanding of the legal principles concerning the scope of application of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act, and this error had an effect on the outcome of the judgment.
Such an error, in the event that the aforementioned charge, which is in an imaginary concurrence relationship with the part found guilty by the appellate court, is found guilty, would require sentencing within the range of the statutory penalty under Article 30 of this Act, which carries a heavier statutory penalty, and therefore, such an error must be deemed to have an effect on the order of the appellate court's judgment.
Therefore, since the judgment on the part of the original judgment concerning the violation of the Immigration Control Act and the part concerning the violation of the Employment Security and Employment Promotion Act, which constitute the guilty portions, cannot be sustained as they stand, the participating Justices unanimously agreed to reverse these parts and remand the case to the court below for further hearing and determination, and hereby render judgment as stated in the Order.
Justice Kim Seok-su (Presiding Justice), Jeong Gwi-ho, Lee Don-hee (Justice in charge), Lee Im-su