(Herald DB) A South Korean court has ruled that a worker accused of stalking a colleague can be transferred before the allegation is proven.The Seoul Administrative Court upheld Korail’s decision to move an employee to another workplace after a coworker reported him for stalking, according to local reports on Monday.Korea’s state-run railway operator received the complaint in June 2024 and transferred the employee the following month to separate him from the complainant.The employee challenged the decision, arguing that it violated the presumption of innocence.He claimed that he had mistakenly believed that the coworker was interested in him and asked whether he could call her, but took no further action after she refused.He also said that the transfer increased his daily commute to about six hours, prompting him to reduce his working hours and resulting in lower wages.After regional and national labor authorities rejected his request to reverse the transfer, he filed an administrative lawsuit against the National Labor Relations Commission.The court dismissed the case, ruling that an employer can take provisional measures to protect a person who reports stalking even before it is formally determined that stalking occurred.Based on the employee’s conduct and remarks to the coworker, Korail had reasonable grounds to be concerned that the behavior could continue, the court said.The court also rejected the employee’s claim that the transfer had caused a six-hour daily commute, saying the journey did not appear to take that long based on the address listed in his personnel records.It added that the wage reduction resulted from his decision to apply for shorter working hours, rather than directly from the transfer.The court concluded that the inconvenience caused by the transfer did not go significantly beyond what an employee could ordinarily be expected to bear.