Minister Kim Young-hoon of the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said about Coupang's night work, "We will take measures (first) that can be done regardless of the overall regulatory timeline."
The Minister responded this way at the Coupang hearing held at the National Assembly on the 31st, after Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Hong-bae said, "If evidence emerges that night work is harmful, we should regulate night work through guidelines or guidance even before amending the law."
Earlier, the government had announced plans to conduct a survey and case analysis of night workers by June next year and to prepare measures to manage the working hours of night workers by September. It means measures will be taken first regardless of these plans.
The Minister also agreed with Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hyun-jung's point that "there is testimony that Coupang headquarters employees and employees of the subsidiary Coupang Logistics Service (CLS) work together on sorting tasks, and it is a clear case of illegal dispatch for headquarters employees and subsidiary employees to be mixed together on site," calling it "a typical case." In response to Kim's request for a labor inspection, the Minister said, "We will do it."
In response to a call for an investigation by lawmaker Lee Yong-woo of the same party, who presented various pieces of evidence related to the concealment of an industrial accident involving the late Jang Deok-jun, a former worker at a Coupang logistics center, including charges of instigating concealment of an industrial accident, concealment of an industrial accident, and violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Minister said, "We view the matter as very serious, and since it has been recognized, we will proceed with a swift investigation immediately."