hankyoreh

an affiliate of the Shinsegae chaebol. Emart has been found to have given preferential status when recruiting to the sons and daughters of influential figures

By Um Ji-won and Kim So-youn, staff reporters

E-mart, affiliate of Shinsegae Group, instituted harsh guidelines to counter the Honorary Citizen Labor Ombudsman system set up by Seoul mayor Park Won-soon to protect the interests of irregular workers and other laborers. E-mart’s guidelines include preventing the ombudsman staff from entering the workplace. They are being criticized as showing the arrogance of a company that disregards the policies of the municipal government.



On Jan. 18, Hankyoreh reporters obtained a document titled "Workplace Guidelines for Dealing with Honorary Citizen Labor Ombudsmen." The document reveals that, only two days after Seoul City Government’s Dec. 5, 2011 announcement that it intended to set up a labor ombudsman system, E-mart had prepared a detailed internal protocol for handling the ombudsman. E-mart staff at each branch were instructed to respond to the ombudsman according to this protocol.



According to Seoul's labor ombudsman system, when a laborer complains of some difficulty in an e-mail or over the phone, certified labor consultants who are hired by Seoul's 25 independent districts can visit the workplace to provide advice. The system took effect in April 2012.



The document shows that, “Seoul’s ombudsman system has no legal basis and is also unlikely to be fair or objective.” The document instructed E-mart branches to “not allow any labor ombudsmen to enter the store if they come to listen to workers talk about their problems.” In essence, E-mart established a policy of not cooperating with the ombudsman system even before it took effect.



E-Mart even came up with a legal way of responding to a situation in which Seoul city employees insist on entering the workplace: "If an ombudsman forces his way into the workplace without permission, even though we have expressed our unwillingness for this to happen, we can take legal action as provided for in the civil and criminal codes, including pressing charges for trespassing on private property, refusal to vacate premises, obstruction of business, and other offenses," the document reads.

"Evidence shall be gathered by CCTV, video cameras, and other means, and if there is a physical altercation resulting from forced entry, this information shall be provided to the investigators."



"The ombudsman system was created for the benefit of many citizens. It's hard to believe that E-mart would take issue with this and prepare this kind of internal protocol," said a senior Seoul City Government official. "Further, all this talk about legal measures goes far beyond plain greed on the part of the business owner and shows their arrogance."



An Jin-geol, head of the social economy team for People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, was also critical of the guidelines. "For E-Mart to believe it can ignore the policy of a city government that it disagrees with shows just how self-righteous the company is,” he said.



E-mart acknowledged that the guidelines were real. "We consider the actions of the people responsible for creating these excessive work guidelines to be regrettable," the company said.



Meanwhile, on Jan. 18, the Ministry of Employment and Labor begin a special labor inspection of E-mart, which is suspected of placing employees under illegal surveillance in order to prevent the establishment of a labor union.



"There are a huge number of problems at E-Mart," Lee Chae-pil, Minister of Employment and Labor, said in a general meeting of the National Assembly committee for the environment and labor. "Through this special labor inspection, we will determine the ways in which the law has been violated.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]