15 September, 2010
In February 2005, Mr. Choi, a worker at a subcontracting company of the Ulsan factory of the Hyundai Motors in South Korea, was dismissed for carrying out trade union activities. Mr. Choi had been employed by the subcontractor and stationed at the Ulsan factory since March 2002.
When he was dismissed Mr. Choi, filed an application for remedy to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) in an administrative lawsuit, claiming that it was an unfair dismissal and that Hyundai Motors, not the subcontracting company, was his real employer.
On 22 July 2010, the Korean Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Choi was an illegal dispatch worker and determined that he, in fact, became a direct employee of Hyundai the day after working two consecutive years.
The High Court wrote, “Mr. Choi was under the direct human resource (HR) management by the Hyundai Motors after being employed by one of its subcontracting companies. So, it will be assumed that he was a dispatch worker to the Hyundai Motors. Under the Act on the Protection of Dispatch Workers, etc. (Dispatch Worker Act), he should be regarded as a worker employed by the Hyundai Motors from the day after he has worked more than two consecutive years.”
Welcoming the groundbreaking ruling, the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation declared, “The ruling puts a brake on discrimination and extortion by employers for non-regular workers. We will request all the employers hiring in-house subcontracted workers including the Hyundai Motors a special round of collective bargaining and also proceed with a series of class action lawsuits gathering dismissed workers, retirees, etc.”
The International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) covered this story on 29 July and it can be found here.