Both the subcontractor union and the existing regular worker union are pushing back against POSCO's decision to directly hire about 7,000 in-house subcontracted workers at the Pohang and Gwangyang steelworks. The subcontractor union is taking issue with the decision targeting only some partner-company employees, while the regular worker union pointed to a lack of internal communication. POSCO said the direct hiring is limited to production-related roles to drive safety management innovation and added it will keep communicating to address internal opposition.
According to the steel industry on the 14th, the POSCO In-house Subcontractors Gwangyang chapter under the Korean Metal Workers' Union held a rally at the Gwangyang steelworks the previous day condemning the company's direct hiring announcement and delivered a letter of protest to management.
The letter of protest included: ◇ launch of special talks on conversion to regular positions ◇ direct hiring of all in-house subcontracted workers ◇ end to discriminatory hiring via separate job categories ◇ dismantling of the multilevel subcontracting structure ◇ halt to demands conditioned on lawsuits to confirm worker status and waivers of rights.
They argued that POSCO's plan to directly hire 7,000 subcontracted workers neither fulfills the legal responsibility under the Supreme Court ruling nor reflects the conversion to regular positions that subcontracted workers have sought.
POSCO has long been embroiled in legal disputes with in-house subcontracted workers over their employment status. In-house subcontracted workers at the Gwangyang steelworks filed worker status confirmation (illegal dispatch) lawsuits against POSCO in 2011 and 2016, arguing that "the work contracts between partner companies and POSCO are, in substance, labor dispatch contracts under the Act on the Protection of Dispatched Workers."
POSCO plans to wrap up legal disputes related to worker status lawsuits and conduct special hiring for in-house subcontracted workers at the steelworks, selecting willing applicants into the operations synergy job category.
The subcontractor union views this kind of job categorization as discriminatory hiring, saying it is similar to the method POSCO used to hire in-house subcontracted workers after prevailing under a 2022 Supreme Court ruling. According to the subcontractor union, about 50 subcontracted workers hired at the time were classified into separate categories—such as production E and O categories—with significant gaps from existing regular workers in pay and pay increase rates.
They also argued that POSCO has about 17,000 subcontracted workers when including second- and third-tier subcontractors, and the company's unilateral move to directly hire only 7,000 is merely a decision to evade legal responsibility. The union of subcontracted workers said the hiring plan limited to a set number of people is intended to weaken the union's bargaining power while reducing the prime contractor's responsibility.
They said, "The company's announcement to directly hire about 7,000 subcontracted workers is nothing more than another trick to cover up illegality," adding, "If direct hiring is to happen, it must be a full conversion to regular positions with the principle of 'equal pay for equal work.'"
The in-house regular worker union is also expressing dissatisfaction with management's hiring plan. POSCO's representative bargaining union, the Federation of Korean Metal Workers' Unions at the Korean Federation of Trade Unions POSCO Union, said in a statement, "The direct hiring of 7,000 subcontracted workers was a decision pushed through without the process of building consensus," adding, "There was no consideration for existing employees or thought for the future."
POSCO must also negotiate individually with subcontractor unions that applied for collective bargaining under the decision of the Gyeongbuk Regional Labor Relations Commission: the Federation of Korean Metal Workers' Unions at the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Metal Workers' Union, and the KCTU National Plant Construction Workers' Union.
A POSCO official, responding to the subcontractor union's claims, said, "Direct hiring of subcontracted workers is being pursued as part of safety management innovation," adding, "The hiring scale was set by limiting it to jobs directly related to operations within the steelworks."
Regarding criticism of insufficient communication with regular employees, the official said, "We will continue internal communication during the hiring process and work to alleviate existing employees' concerns."