hankyoreh

Ssangyong Motor workers targeted by a state lawsuit seeking damages for industrial action hold a press conference on Aug. 30 outside the National Police Agency headquarters in Seoul calling for the suit to be withdrawn. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Korea overturned an original trial ruling recognizing the liability of striking SsangYong Motor workers for damages to be paid to the state.

The decision came 13 years after SsangYong workers held a 77-day “strike to the death” to oppose the company’s layoffs, and six years and five months after sentencing in the second trial. It belatedly undid at least one of the loops in the noose of damage claims that have been choking the workers ever since.

It’s a situation that underscores both the justification and the urgency of enacting the “yellow envelope law,” which would prevent workers from being targeted with damages suits for striking.

The situation started when the police filed suit to demand compensation from workers with the SsangYong chapter of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) for damage to helicopters and other losses sustained during the suppression of the 2009 strike. In both the first and second trials, the court sided with the police.

In the meantime, the interest continued to mount. Had they lost the final judgment, the workers would have had to pay 3 billion won (US$2.76 million).

In 2018, labor and management reached an agreement to reinstate all the workers who had been laid off. That same year, a National Police Agency (NPA) committee investigating human rights infringements recognized the strike’s suppression as an excessive exercise of state authority and recommended that the damage claims be dropped. The NPA commissioner general even issued a formal apology.

The police certainly deserve censure for their attitude in letting things reach this point.

It is impossible not to suspect that the aim behind the police’s over-the-top actions was to use money as a tool to strangle the union. They followed the same playbook as major corporations, which have routinely demanded compensation from striking workers.

While SsangYong Motor has withdrawn its suit against the striking workers, another case demanding over 3 billion won from the larger KMWU is still pending in the Supreme Court. In the second trial, the court ordered compensation of 8 million won, including interest for delayed payment.

It is difficult to count all the different places where workers have been struggling with compensation suits filed by their respective companies.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled to recognize around 400 irregular workers employed by Hyundai/Kia in-house subcontractors as being affiliated with those automakers. But since the first Supreme Court decision in 2010 ruling this arrangement to constitute illegal dispatch employment, Hyundai Motor has filed 17 suits demanding over 20 million won in damages from striking workers employed by in-house subcontractors.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering also filed suit to demand 47 billion won from in-house subcontractor employees who went on strike this past summer.

As grounds for their suits, the state and companies have cited Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union Act, which more or less declares strikes by subcontractor employees and specially employed persons to be illegal.

In a one-month period, over 50,000 South Koreans supported a National Assembly petition for a “yellow envelope” law to fix this situation. Related legislation has already been presented.

As a cold snap hit South Korea on Wednesday, six workers launched a hunger strike to demand the legislation’s passage. It’s time for the National Assembly to take action and break this vicious cycle.

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