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Kim Soon-hee (right)

“I came out telling myself I would pay the money back through my job at the company, but to be honest, I was really scared. I’m a worker who makes 1.3 million won (US$1,160) a month,” said Kim Soon-hee, who works for KEC, an electronics part company. As Kim tried to explain her predicament, tears came to her eyes.

Kim was speaking at a press conference organized by Hand in Hand, a group that aims to help people whose property has been placed under provisional attachment, held at the office of People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy in the Jongno District of Seoul on Aug. 30.

When Kim and 87 of her coworkers carried out a strike in 2010 against their company, which was refusing to abide by the collective agreement about wages, the company struck back by suing them for 30.1 billion won (US$26.89 million) in damages.

“The company used the damages lawsuit as a form of blackmail. They said we would never be able to pay back 30 billion won and offered to waive our liability if we would quit the company,” Kim recalled.

The company adjusted the amount it requested to 14.3 billion won, but even this was an amount that the workers “couldn’t dream of earning, let alone paying back, if we worked our whole life,” as Kim put it.

“Every time I heard that one of the workers at Ssangyong Motor had been driven to suicide by the pressure of the provisional attachment from the damages lawsuit, I was worried that the same thing would happen to my friends,” Kim said. “Whether I’m in the bus on the way to work or sitting by myself at home, I can’t stop crying.”

Next month, a district court will deliver its ruling on KEC’s damages lawsuit against the workers.

Hand in Hand announced on Aug. 30 that, as of that month, 152.19 billion won worth of assets at just 20 labor unions under the umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) were under provisional attachment in damages lawsuits. Even the South Korean national police filed a lawsuit against the KCTU after a nationwide rally in Nov. 2015, claiming damages of around 380 million won.

“Provisional attachments for damages are increasing against newly formed labor unions, and damages lawsuits are even being filed against labor actions that do not cause any physical damage, such as chanting slogans and holding pickets,” said Hand in Hand.

“Provisional attachments for damages are still being widely used as a means of oppressing workers,” said Yun Ji-yeong, a member of Hand in Hand’s steering committee.

“Given the prevalence of provisional attachments for damages, no one is able to speak their mind. The law needs to be revised, but the courts should also make just decisions that take into account the motivation behind the damages lawsuit,” Yun said.

By Bang Jun-ho, staff reporter

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