14 February, 2011
Full work rights for irregular workers took a big step forward in Korea last week. A ruling by the Seoul High Court against Hyundai Motor and for a sacked subcontract worker was greeted as a marker for those following this critical global issue.
In a case reviewed, overturned, and then sent on to the Seoul High Court by Korea’s Supreme Court, the ruling rightfully declared that Choe Byeong-seung, 35, was a direct employee of Hyundai while employed at its Ulsan manufacturing complex between 2003 to 2005.
In issuing the verdict on 10 February, the High Court said Choe “carried out his duties mixed with regular workers on either side of the conveyer belt, and Hyundai Motor made decisions regarding workload, methods, sequence, etc.”
Following the ruling, the Hyundai Irregular Workers’ Union and its parent, the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), held a press conference in front of Hyundai’s headquarters in Seoul. Their message is that the world’s fifth largest auto maker must take this ruling as signal to bring all subcontract workers to direct employment.
Hyundai employs roughly 34,500 workers at its plants in Korea, with nearly one-quarter of them irregular workers. Choe, for instance, was hired by the car maker through a labour agency, but he sued Hyundai, not the agency, for restitution of his work rights. He was sacked, allegedly, for exercising his right to belong to a union.
For the company’s part last week, it denigrated the judgment by announcing it would appeal the High Court’s ruling back to the Supreme Court, and stated it might even file a Constitutional Petition.
The plight that irregular workers face is again becoming a hot-button issue in Korea’s politics. All political parties are engaged on the issue, and even a leading member of the ruling Grand National Party declared it “hypocritical to talk about welfare issues while ignoring the problem of irregular workers.” On 27 January, the opposition parties, Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and People Participations Party (PPP), broke new ground by debating the issue of irregular employment in a public forum.
The urgency of the issue, in no small part, also arises from last November-December’s 25-day sit-down strike at Ulsan, as well as job actions by non-regular workers at Hyundai plants in Asan and Jeonju during the same period. The strike at Ulsan caught the world’s attention, revealing accurately a major global manufacturer in an OECD country capitalising on servitude.
Hyundai is hardly the only Korean equipment maker that exploits precarious workers. The GM Daewoo Irregular Workers’ branch of the KMWU in Incheon City has been battling for full-time rights for nearly four years. Despite local government and civil society pleas to GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. to begin talks with the union over misuse of irregular workers, the company has refused, citing no responsibility because it is not the official employer.
Workers staged a sit-in atop an arch leading into the factory in December and later that month, the branch’s President, Sin Hyeon-chang, went on a hunger strike.