hankyoreh

Aug. 10. 1

By Jeon Jong-hwi and Park Seung-heon, staff reporters

The court has again delayed for a month its ruling in a lawsuit that subcontractor workers filed against Hyundai Motor claiming that they had been illegally dispatched and demanding that they be recognized as company employees. This is the third time that the ruling, which was supposed to be announced on Aug. 21 or 22, has been delayed. Workers are objecting to the court’s decision, arguing that Hyundai Motor is attempting to buy time in the hope that more workers will abandon the lawsuit.

The reason the Seoul Central District Court delayed the decision until Sep. 18 or 19 is that 75 of the plaintiffs in the suit withdrew their claim between Aug. 19 and 20. The court explained on Aug. 20 that, according to the Civil Procedure Act, if plaintiffs withdraw their suit after arguments have begun, the defendant (in this case, Hyundai Motor), must be given two weeks to indicate whether or not to accept the withdrawal. The 75 plaintiffs who filed to withdraw their claims are reportedly all workers who applied for regular employment with Hyundai Motor in July 2012 and have already become regular workers at the company.

The attorneys for the workers who filed the lawsuit suspect that Hyundai Motor had something to do with the group of plaintiffs who withdrew their claims. One reason for their suspicions is that 75 plaintiffs moved to withdraw their claims in the short space of half a day; another reason is that hardly any of the workers received a statement of permission from Hyundai Motor in advance and attached this to their application to withdraw their claim, even though they could have done so. “It looks like the company coaxed or compelled people they had already hired to withdraw their legal claims,” said Kim Tae-wook, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs.

In the request to delay judgment that Hyundai Motor filed with the court, it said that 102 more workers are planning to give up on the lawsuit. This implies that the verdict in the trial could be delayed once more in September. Hyundai Motor’s strategy could be to drag out the court’s decision as long as possible to convince more workers to withdraw their claims and to weaken the position of the Ulsan irregular workers union chapter, which is asking the company not to newly hire them but to convert them to regular workers, recognizing their years of experience, and paying them back wages.

“Withdrawing a legal claim is the right of the plaintiff and it is their choice to make. The company is not in a position to discuss anything related to withdrawing these claims,” a representative with Hyundai Motor said. The company announced on Aug. 21 that it would be newly hiring 400 regular workers in September.

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