Under the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act Articles 2 and 3 amendment, implemented on Mar. 1 and known as "the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers," POSCO, which is set to negotiate directly with a subcontractor union for the first time, is facing friction even before sitting down at the bargaining table. POSCO says the scope of its bargaining obligation is unclear and each agenda item needs a legal determination, while the union argues the agenda should be decided by autonomous agreement between labor and management so talks can start quickly.
According to the steel industry on the 21st, the Central Labor Relations Commission decided on "suspension of mediation" on the 14th regarding the labor dispute mediation application filed by the POSCO in-house subcontractor Gwangyang chapter of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Metal Workers' Union. As a result, the KCTU POSCO In-house Subcontractors Gwangyang Chapter (hereafter the subcontractor union) obtained the authority to carry out a legal strike.
The subcontractor union sought dispute mediation because it failed to narrow differences over the counterpart and scope of talks ahead of bargaining with the principal employer, POSCO. The Gwangyang chapter wants to proceed quickly with bargaining on all items, but management maintains that it must first secure recognition of "employer status" for each item in the union's bargaining demands.
Employer status refers to the concept of recognizing as an employer a party who, even without a direct employment contract with a worker, is in a position to substantially determine and control that worker's wages or working conditions. POSCO's position is that it will negotiate only on parts of the union's demands where employer status is recognized.
In May, the subcontractor union delivered to POSCO a set of 39 collective bargaining demands that included job security and wage increases. However, it claimed that despite requesting bargaining a total of 14 times through last month, management did not respond even once.
With substantive bargaining not underway, working-level negotiators from POSCO and the subcontractor union held an informal meeting on the 13th. At that meeting, POSCO reportedly conveyed that, except for "industrial safety," the remaining agenda items in the subcontractor union's demands would each need to go through a legal determination process.
The company wants to first check whether "substantive control," the criterion for determining employer status, is recognized, and then negotiate only on agenda items where it has a bargaining obligation. Management argued that because the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers, is being implemented for the first time, precedents are scarce and legal interpretations are unclear, making it difficult to decide whether labor and management can negotiate on their own discretion.
For the industrial safety item, which management accepted as a bargaining agenda, the North Gyeongsang Provincial Labor Relations Commission ruled in March that employer status and the scope of bargaining rights were recognized.
The yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers, stipulates that whether the principal employer's employer status is recognized should be determined for each agenda item. Recognition of employer status is determined by whether the party falls under "one who substantially and specifically controls or decides working conditions."
The subcontractor union is pushing back, saying this position by management effectively means it will not negotiate. If each item requires a legal determination, the process will inevitably take a long time, making proper bargaining difficult. In principle, employer status determinations on individual items must be made within 10 days, up to 20 days, from the date the request is received.
The subcontractor union argues that the bargaining agenda should be decided by autonomous agreement between labor and management and that bargaining should begin quickly. Since the issues of wages and welfare included in the bargaining demands arise from contracts between the principal employer and subcontractors, the union says the parties can decide without such legal determinations.
POSCO is not the only place where bargaining is stalled due to conflict between labor and management over whether to seek legal determinations on the agenda. HD Hyundai Samho in March posted notice of the Metal Workers' Union's bargaining request and said it would negotiate with the subcontractor union under the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers. However, the company is also insisting that employer status be recognized for each agenda item in the subcontractor union's demands, and talks are hitting snags.
Experts predict that, beyond POSCO and HD Hyundai Samho, many corporations are likely to first seek legal determinations on individual agenda items.
Park Ji-soon, a professor at Korea University Law School, said, "From the principal employer's perspective, entering overall bargaining without legal determinations on individual items can create multiple risks and reduce the practical benefits obtained through subcontracting," adding, "To minimize these risks, they want to first identify, item by item, whether each is an appropriate subject of bargaining."
However, POSCO and the subcontractor union said they would try to narrow differences over how to set the bargaining agenda through communication.
Eo In-gwang, secretary-general of the Gwangyang chapter, said, "We have secured the legal right to strike through the suspension of mediation decision, but our position remains to start talks somehow first," adding, "Since management has not come to the table even once yet, we plan to make further bargaining requests."
A POSCO official said, "There are still differences in positions on the bargaining agenda," adding, "We plan to closely review the Central Labor Relations Commission's written decision on employer status and respond." POSCO has also reportedly informed the subcontractor union that it intends to hold a kickoff meeting for bargaining at the end of this month.