SEOUL (AFP) — South Korea's Supreme Court gave its backing Friday to a woman teacher who complained she was forced to serve morning tea to her male school principal.
The principal committed suicide after the teachers' union took up the woman's complaint of gender discrimination. This prompted the family of the deceased to sue the teacher for defamation, Yonhap news agency reported.
A district and an appeals court had already acquitted the defendant, saying a law had been in force for years banning the practice of female teachers serving tea to their superiors.
"In academic institutions, gender equality is a very important constitutional value," Justice Ahn Dai-Hee said in the ruling. "The main purpose of her actions was in the public interest and thus does not constitute a crime."
The woman said she had been ordered to serve tea to the principal every morning when she arrived at work. She quit her job after two weeks and posted a complaint on a website.
The teachers' union took up her cause and criticised the principal, who later killed himself.
Korea has traditionally been a male-dominated society. The US State Department's 2007 human rights report noted that "gender discrimination in the workplace remained a problem."
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