hankyoreh

An eleven-year debate over in-house subcontracting at Hyundai Motor effectively ended on Mar. 17 when a provisional agreement on special hiring of regular workers was approved in a vote by the Ulsan subcontractors’ chapter of the union. Terms of the agreement include the special hiring of 2,000 in-house subcontractor workers - 1,200 in 2016 and 800 in 2017 - and recognition of half or more of current years of service. A minimum percentage of in-house subcontractor workers are also be taken on in any circumstances that require additional full-time hires from 2018 onward. In exchange, the union and management agreed to withdraw all current civil and criminal suits.

The Hyundai Motor in-house subcontracting issue first surfaced publicly with the Mar. 2005 dismissal of Choi Byeong-seung, a worker at one of the subcontractors. After a long legal battle, the Supreme Court made two rulings in 2010 and 2015 stating that the automaker’s in-house subcontractor practices constituted illegal use of dispatch labor, and that any worker who worked at an in-house subcontractor for two years or more should be regarded as having been hired directly by Hyundai. The decision was based on the difficulty distinguishing between the duties of regular and irregular workers, and the fact that Hyundai was responsible for orders and oversight for the workers. This week’s agreement certainly took a very long time in coming, but as a precedent for the full-time hiring of in-house subcontractor employees, it is laudable.

To be sure, the embers of conflict aren’t fully extinguished. It can’t really be seen as a full conversion to full-time status when workers are taken on as new hires with only a portion of their service period recognized. The terms also apply only to workers at subcontractors involved in direct production who were hired before the Supreme Court rulings - which means around 600 other workers are excluded. In any case, what the union and management need to do now is keep harnessing their wisdom to fully honor the spirit of this hard-won agreement.

Hyundai’s reluctance isn’t the only reason the controversy dragged on for 11 years. The administration and prosecutors also bear a large share of blame for their unfair double standards. The Supreme Court ruled as early as 2004 that most of the processes operated on illegal dispatch labor, yet the Ministry of Employment and Labor waited over a decade before making any active efforts to fix things. The prosecutors came under fire for deciding not to press charges against a number of company executives (including chairman Chung Mong-koo) and in-house subcontractor presidents who didn’t move to fix the practice. Hyundai Motor, considered one of South Korea’s leading businesses, ended up paying the price in damage to its corporate image and unnecessary conflicts, including an aerial protest that lasted close to 300 days. The in-house subcontractor issue is a matter of workers doing the same work, yet earning much less pay and suffering in terms of status. These eleven years are a testament to the importance of resolving it swiftly.

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