hankyoreh

the 21st day of their protest. (by Kim Kyu-nam)

By Kim So-youn, staff reporter and Sin Dong-myeong, Ulsan correspondent

On Jan. 7, labor activist Choe Byeong-seung was granted a full-time position at Hyundai Motor. The appointment comes eight years after Choe, now 37, was dismissed from his position as an in-house subcontractor employee.

Choe is currently in the 83rd day of a sit-in protest on a electricity pylon at the Hyundai Motor Ulsan factory, calling for the regularization of all the company’s illegally dispatched temporary workers.

Choe responded to the offer by demanding that all in-house subcontractor employees receive permanent positions in line with an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court.

“I really want to work,” he said, “but I can’t stop the protest and go work full-time by myself.”

Hyundai issued the announcement via company intranet on Jan. 7, stating that it was “hiring Mr. Choe as a full-time worker as of this coming 9th.” It marked the first time an illegally employed temporary worker at the company had been converted to full-time status.

In 2004, the Ministry of Employment and Labor ruled that all in-house subcontracting workers on Hyundai Motor’s production line were illegally employed dispatch personnel. After being let go by his employer in February 2005 while demanding his position be regularized, Choe filed a request with the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) asking for restitution for illegal dismissal.

The NLRC dismissed the case, arguing that Hyundai Motor “cannot be viewed as Mr. Choe’s employer”.

But in February 2012, the Supreme Court made the final call, siding with Choe in ruling that he should have been viewed as employed by Hyundai Motor as of 2004 due to a provision in the former Temporary Agency Work Act which states that anyone performing dispatch labor at a single workplace for more than two years should be regarded as employed by that company.

Hyundai Motor had spent the ten months after the ruling refusing to convert Choe to full-time status. The belated appointment comes at a time when the pylon protest has drawn major attention to the issue.

If Choe wanted full-time status so badly, why is he refusing the offer?

“If I agree and go over to full-time status by myself, there are inevitably going to be cases like mine where people have to spend years in the courts and go up on towers to have their status as illegal dispatch employees recognized,” he said.

Choe added that he undertook his 2005 case on behalf of many other temporary workers who were let go at the time but could not afford the costs of litigation.

“The Supreme Court ruled that the entire Hyundai Motor production line was illegally employed, not just me,” he explained. “Labor and management need to resolve the illegal dispatch issue once and for all through bargaining.”

In other words, Choe has no plans to return to solid ground until a final agreement has been reached.

Conflict has been brewing between labor and management at Hyundai Motor after the company’s refusal to acknowledge the illegal status of 7,700 in-house subcontractor workers. Instead, it has said it intends to give new full-time jobs to 3,500 of them through 2016, which offers less favorable terms than a conversion to full-time status would.

The Hyundai Motor temporary workers’ chapter of Korean Metal Workers’ Union criticized what it called the company’s attempt to frustrate the battle on behalf of illegally employed workers. Choe would have to come down from the tower to go to work, but would most likely be dismissed for absenteeism if he remains in place.

Indeed, the automaker warned of the possibility of dismissal in a Jan. 7 release, saying that there “must not be any further delay in employment procedures. If there is no supply of labor [from Choe], then this will lead to a situation where maintaining an employment contract relationship is impossible.”

A source at Hyundai Motor said the company was unlikely to terminate Choe’s employment for missing work immediately after issuing the hiring announcement.

“One possibility would be to treat it as annual or monthly leave,” the source explained. “Only if he doesn‘t show for a long time will they start discussing measures.”

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