Text Fwd: Court sides with subcontracted worker in Hyundai Motor case

In-house subcontractors of Hyundai Motor stand in front of the Seoul High Court and talk with smiles following the favorable court verdict, Feb. 10. (Photo by Shin So-young)

* Text informed by Steve Zeltzer on Feb. 11, 2011

Hankyoreh
Court sides with subcontracted worker in Hyundai Motor case
Hyundai will appeal to the Supreme Court, which is expected to confirm the High Court’s decision

Song Gyung-hwa and Jeon Jong-hwi

Posted on Feb. 11, 2011　
　　
Seoul High Court ruled Thursday that an in-house subcontractor dispatched to Hyundai Motor more than two years before must be regarded as a full-time worker directly employed by the company.

The court’s third administrative division, under Judge Lee Dae-gyeong, ruled Thursday in favor of Choe Byeong-seung, 35, who was fired from the design line at Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan plant after working there for more than two years as a subcontracting worker. The trial was the rehearing of a suit filed by Choe against the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), requesting cancellation of a retrial verdict on restitution for improper firing and improper labor actions.

In its ruling, the court said that Choe “carried out his duties mixed in with regular workers on either side on the conveyor belt, and Hyundai Motor made decisions regarding their workload, methods, sequence, etc.”

“As he was dispatched to Hyundai Motor and employed by Hyundai Motor for more than two years, it is the court’s view that [Hyundai Motor] employed him directly,” the court added.

Choe, who went to work at his subcontracting company on March 13, 2002, and worked alongside more than 100 other Hyundai Motor in-house subcontractors at the Ulsan plant, requested restitution for improper dismissal from the NLRC following his firing on Feb. 2, 2005. When his request was not accepted, he filed suit. While the rulings at the first and second trial went against him, the Supreme Court overturned the original ruling in July 2010, stating that Choe’s case “should be viewed as direct employment,” and sent the case back to Seoul High Court.

In November 2010, Seoul High Court produced a ruling confirming the employment status of in-house subcontractors in a similar lawsuit filed against Hyundai Motor by in-house subcontractors who had worked for more than two years in the chassis and engine factory and service line at the company’s Asan plant. The Supreme Court is currently hearing this case.

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