26 March, 2015IndustriALL Global Union has called on Rolls-Royce Marine Korea in Busan to immediately reinstate 12 sacked trade unionists, after the city’s labour commission ruled the dismissals were unlawful.
On 7 January 2015, the Busan National Labour Relations Commission found that Rolls-Royce Marine Korea, which produces winches for ships, had illegally dismissed union members in October 2014.
The company says it sacked the workers, who are affiliated to IndustriALL through the Federation of Korean Metal Workers’ Trade Unions (FKMTU), because of “urgent managerial necessity”.
The Commission found that Rolls-Royce Marine had violated South Korea’s Labour Standards Act, which restricts dismissal for managerial reasons. Therefore, the company is bound to reinstate all the dismissed workers within 30 days after the written judgment.
However, the company has failed to give the workers their jobs back and applied for a retrial at the Central National Labour Relations Commission.
“We will not give up until the company admits their fault and apologizes to the dismissed workers,” said union leader, Ha Young Jae. “We want a victory for our powerless workers.”
In a letter to Rolls-Royce, IndustriALL general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:
“We strongly urge you to reinstate right away the dismissed workers, and stop harassing the workers and the union. In addition, we call on the management of Rolls Royce Marine Korea to return to the negotiating table with the union to achieve a fair and just resolution of this conflict as well as create a constructive relationship between labour and management.”
Rolls-Royce Marine Korea Ltd in Busan City is an affiliated company of world-famous engineering business Rolls-Royce, which is headquartered in the UK.
The South Korean company was established in 2000 and had total sales of US$36 million in 2014.