It has been finalized that Hanwha Ocean has withdrawn its 47 billion won damages lawsuit filed against subcontracted workers who staged a sit-in occupying a dock (dock·shipbuilding facility) at the Hanwha Ocean (then Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) Geoje complex in South Gyeongsang in 2022.
According to legal sources on the 2nd, Hanwha Ocean submitted a motion to withdraw its 47 billion won damages lawsuit on the 29th of last month to the Tongyeong branch of the Changwon District Court against five executive members of the Metal Workers' Union Geoje-Tongyeong-Goseong Shipbuilding Subcontract Workers' Chapter (Shipbuilding Subcontract Workers' Chapter). The subcontracted workers' side also filed a consent to dismiss on the 30th of last month, completing the lawsuit withdrawal process.
This brings to a close roughly three years of conflict between the company and subcontracted workers since the 2022 strike. The subcontracted workers' union occupied a dock for 51 days starting on June 2, 2022, in an illegal strike that caused hefty losses to the company, prompting the lawsuit, and the civil trial had continued for years.
The company and the Shipbuilding Subcontract Workers' Chapter agreed on the 28th of last month to withdraw the damages lawsuit and held a joint news conference at the National Assembly. Hanwha Ocean said it would unconditionally and immediately withdraw two damages suits filed over the Shipbuilding Subcontract Workers' Chapter's activities, including the 2022 strike, and the Shipbuilding Subcontract Workers' Chapter expressed regret over matters arising from the strike. Labor and management also agreed to work to establish sound labor-management relations as the principal contractor and the subcontracted workers' union.
Various sectors of society, including South Gyeongsang Gov. Park Wan-su, the South Gyeongsang Province Committee for Grand Social Integration, and Geoje Mayor Byeon Gwang-yong, welcomed the agreement between the two sides.