hankyoreh

3 out of 10 of whom are in-house subcontractors

By Song Gyung-hwa and Jeon Jong-hwi

The first ruling has come out saying that Hyundai Motors must directly hire in-house subcontractors on not only its main line, but also its chassis, engine and sublines if they have worked for reached two years of employment, and should categorize them as dispatched labor.

In a suit filed by seven Hyundai workers, including a Mr. Kim, 37, who was fired after working as an in-house subcontractor at Hyundai’s Asan plant, the Seoul High Court ruled that the four of the seven who worked for over two years had become official Hyundai employees rather than subcontractors.

In the ruling, the court said, “Kim and the other plaintiffs conducted the same work in teams with regular employees, and Hyundai determined the start and end of their work day, granted them vacations, decided whether to extend their contracts and give them overtime, and determined the speed of their work.” The ruling went on to say, “Hyundai substantively managed Kim and the other in-house subcontractors.”

The court ruled that despite it being an illegal dispatch of labor, the law would be applied so that even if the subcontracting company changes, the subcontractor’s employment status remains the same, so Kim and the others who had been dispatched to the plant for two years or more based on when they entered the company were, in fact, Hyundai employees.

Despite a series of such rulings, it does not appear the issue of indirect hiring will easily see a resolution.

Hyundai stressed that the duty to directly hire established by the Supreme Court ruling in July and Friday’s Seoul High Court ruling applied only to the five in-house subcontractors. They claim that the remaining workers are still just subcontractors with no direct connection to Hyundai. Hyundai also said it plans to appeal against the Seoul High Court decision, believing it to be based on erroneous facts. Moreover, it has shown a hardline attitude, deciding to directly seek a Constitutional Court opinion on the Labor Dispatch Law when the High Court dismissed its request for an opinion.

“It seems that unlike the case with the Supreme Court, the High Court made its decision by simply substituting the Supreme Court decision, despite the array of new facts,” said a Hyundai official. “It also said the decision basically tells companies to fire their dispatched labor before the two-year mark.”

Labor experts say, however, that thanks to the two court rulings, Hyundai Motor’s legally defined work space has expanded to include not only its main factory in Ulsan, but also its Asan plant. And in addition, the work process has expanded to include not only chassis manufacture, painting and engine manufacture, most of Hyundai Motor’s in-house subcontract labor is in fact being dispatched illegally. Accordingly, Hyundai must step forward and directly hire these workers.

Lawyer Kim Gi-deok, who represented the laborers in this case, said, “The court’s decision, unlike the Supreme Court case, set a broad scope, and Hyundai Motor must take legal responsibility for its illegal dispatch of labor in using in-house subcontractors at all of its production grounds.”

A total of 1,940 in-house subcontractors at Hyundai filed a suit on Nov. 4 demanding they be recognized as Hyundai employees.

Hyundai Motor’s irregular workers association had proposed several times negotiations with the company to discuss the issue, but the company never agreed. The in-house subcontractors, believing the company has no will to talk, have decided to go on strike from Nov. 15. The irregular workers association decided to go on strike following a two-day vote on the matter that began Thursday. The group plans to go on strike beginning with the Ulsan factory.

There is strong criticism that despite the court rulings that what Hyundai Motor was doing was not ordinary subcontract work but rather an illegal dispatch of labor, Hyundai Motor is not actively looking for a solution. There are once again calls for the adoption of a joint-action lawsuit system, if only for certain kinds of decisions, that would enable workers in the same situation to recover their rights. There are also growing calls for the Dispatch Law, which sentences employers who illegally dispatch labor to up to three years in prison or up to 20 million in fines, to be actively applied.

Lawyer Kwon Young-guk, who heads the Labor Committee for MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, said, “Major corporations are not afraid of regulations since they are given a pass with light punishments that are mere formalities if they break the law.” Kwon went on to say, “The Ministry of Employment and Labor and prosecutors must give corporate owners the will to resolve the issue of illegal labor dispatches on their own by prosecuting the owners of Hyundai Motor, which has illegally dispatched labor on a broad basis over a long period of its corporate history.”

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