A case has emerged in which the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers (Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act Articles 2 and 3 amendment), was applied in the telecommunications industry. The top-tier company's status as employer for on-site workers belonging to an LG Uplus subsidiary and partner firms was recognized.
According to the industry on the 12th, the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission on the 1st upheld a corrective order requested by the Public Transport Workers' Union Living Together Hope Solidarity Headquarters LG Uplus Irregular Workers' Branch over the "failure to post notice of the fact of a bargaining demand to the top-tier company."
The LG Uplus Irregular Workers' Branch is an organization joined by a total of about 1,250 workers belonging to a subsidiary and to partner firms who carry out LG Uplus home service work and more.
Citing the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers, the branch demanded bargaining with LG Uplus as the top-tier company. The company refused to engage, saying there was no formal employment relationship, but the Central Labor Relations Commission sided with the subcontractor union.
Going forward, bargaining agenda items between the top-tier company and the subcontractor union are expected to include labor safety, work environment, work methods, wages and benefits, and guarantees for labor union activities.
The industry is concerned that the impact of the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers, will spread to the telecommunications sector starting with this decision. That is because other corporations' irregular workers' unions may follow with direct bargaining demands to the top-tier companies. Major domestic telecom companies have structures that outsource tasks such as internet installation to subsidiaries or external partner firms.
An LG Uplus official said, "We plan to proceed according to the relevant procedures after the official written decision arrives."