As the amendment to the Labor Union Act, which allows dismissals to join the trade union, passed the National Assembly on the 9th, concerns are growing among companies. Strike workers are moving to protest at a manufacturing plant. Reporter Shin Kyung-hoon [email protected]
–
Mr. A and Mr. B, former union members of Hyundai Heavy Industries, met a colleague C at the Ulsan plant in June last year and demanded that they join the strike. When Mr. C refused to do this, Mr. A and Mr. B, enraged, walked down their legs and hit the face several times. Mr. C suffered a concussion and abrasion. Mr. A and Mr. B were fired for this case. The union of Hyundai Heavy Industries held 17 strikes this year asking for the reinstatement of four dismissed workers, including Mr. A. It is a policy that the company cannot accept. Because of this, the labor and management have not yet completed wage and collective negotiations for 2019, not just this year.
Mr. A will be able to work as a union member of Hyundai Heavy Industries again from next year. Not because the company accepted the union’s demand and decided to reinstate it. This is because the amendment to the labor union law that allows dismissed workers to join the union and their union activities was handled at the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 9th. This law comes into force six months after its promulgation.
As the amendment to the union law passed the National Assembly, companies were panicked. This is because dismissals like Mr. A have been able to rejoin the union. An executive in charge of labor and management at a large company said, “From the second half of next year, the union’s struggle is expected to become more intense,” and said, “I am already worried about how to respond to unreasonable demands.”
According to the Central Labor Commission, 2,142 people were dismissed after requesting relief for “unfair dismissal” last year. This includes dismissals like Mr. A. The number of such layoffs continued to increase from 1464 in 2015, exceeding 2000 for the first time last year. The cumulative number of employees over five years reached 8138. Companies are seeing that many of them will rejoin the union.
The management community is demanding that the union, including strong members, have even the least amount of right to respond as it is more likely to make more demands with strikes as a weapon. An official from the Korea Employers Federation said, “In case of strikes excluded from this revision of the union law, there is a desperate need for additional supplementary legislation so that the provisions for the prohibition of occupation of production facilities in the workplace can be reflected, amongst the allowance of alternative work and industrial action.
About 2,100 people claiming’unfair dismissal’… Will the union return to the’fight for retaliation’?
Companies in an emergency to allow dismissal to join the union
Mr. A, who stopped the Hyundai Motor Company’s production line in 2013 without permission, broke into the GM Korea president’s office in 2018 and smashed something, Mr. B, who smashed an object, and Mr. C who hit a colleague who did not participate in the strike last year. All of them were fired from the company. The Central Labor Commission and the court decided that their dismissal was legitimate. Some dismissals have been sentenced to prison terms. However, the labor unions of these companies demand their reinstatement in annual wage and collective bargaining. The company’s position is that it cannot be accepted.
Political circles have opened the way for these layoffs to resume union activities from next year. On the 9th, he passed an amendment to the labor union law that allows dismissals to join the union. They couldn’t be reinstated, but they could do union activities. According to the Central Labor Commission, 2,142 people were dismissed after requesting relief for “unfair dismissal” last year. The cumulative number of employees over five years reached 8138. Many of them are expected to rejoin the union. The union is welcoming, saying, “I got a hundred per day.” Companies are concerned, saying, “We have even dealt with layoffs.”
“If you cannot return to work, rejoin the union and work on it”
The revision of the labor union law led by the government and the ruling party was to ratify the core convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO), a pledge of President Moon Jae-in. If the ratification of the core agreements, including’guaranteeing freedom of association’, was made, the law was revised because it conflicts with the existing union law that prohibits dismissal from joining the union.
Experts, however, feared that the situation is completely different between the European countries that have ratified the Convention earlier and Korea. Since European countries are’industrial union systems’, it is natural to join a union even if a dismissed person is dismissed, and it does not have a significant impact on individual companies. On the other hand, the situation is different in Korea. It is pointed out that the’union system for each company’ is centered, so if a dismissal rejoins a unit union, it will have a great impact on the labor-management relations of the company.
Concerns are signs that will become reality. As soon as the legislation was passed, each corporate union began preparing for the dismissal to rejoin the union. An official from the automaker’s union said, “If the request for reinstatement of the dismissal is not accepted, the dismissal will rejoin the union and officially work.”
Stop the line, until the dismissal who broke the house
The company has an emergency. It is because of the dismissal’s power. Mr. A, a member of the Hyundai Motors union, occupied the production line in 2010 and stopped the line in 2012. He was fired after inflicting significant damage to the company by shutting down the production line in 2013. It is predicted that if Mr. A rejoins the union next year, Hyundai Motor’s wage and collective bargaining will become difficult. Hyundai Motor’s labor and management led the conclusion of dispute-free negotiations for the second consecutive year until this year.
The same is true of Mr. B, who was a member of the GM Korea union. After breaking into the boss’s office in 2018, he broke bookcases and flower pots. Dissatisfied with the management’s proposal, he struck the conference room wall several times with a fire extinguisher. It is observed that if he rejoined the union, the level of the Korean GM’s struggle would be higher. The provisional agreement for this year’s wage and collective bargaining agreement, which was prepared by GM Korea’s labor and management after labor, was rejected in a recent vote for and against the union.
–
–
209 times of labor loss days in Korea compared to Japan
The business community is concerned about the possibility that the number of days of labor loss will increase further due to the dismissal joining the union. According to the Korea Economic Research Institute, in Korea, the average number of days of labor loss per 1,000 waged workers due to strikes over the past 10 years reached 41.8. It is 209.0 times that of Japan, 9.7 times that of Germany, 6.2 times that of the US, and 2.1 times that of the UK.
Companies are asking for the right to respond so that the factory can be operated even if the union strikes. Every time the union strikes, there is a huge production disruption, so the company asked for alternative work so that the company could hire other workers to continue production. Major countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France have all introduced this system. An official from the Korea Employers Federation said, “This extraordinary assembly is our last chance,” and “I will persuade the National Assembly to reflect the demands of management at least a little.”
Reporter Kim Il-gyu/Do Byeong-wook [email protected]
–
