With the implementation of "the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers" (amended Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act), call center agents at the National Tax Service have been recognized as having the right to bargain with the agency. Agents affiliated with the National Tax Service and its contractors will be able to negotiate over work environments and protections for emotional laborers.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on the 8th that it recognized the National Tax Service as an employer based on the advice of the collective bargaining judgment support committee. This is the first time the ministry has determined that a prime contractor qualifies as an employer.
According to the ministry, although the National Tax Service outsourced telephone consultation work to private companies, it has provided the places, facilities, and equipment where consultations are conducted. It also turned out that the National Tax Service has decided on the management and need for improvements to employee welfare facilities, as well as the scope and timing of improvements.
The ministry said the National Tax Service exclusively manages and operates key infrastructure such as the IT systems, telephone consultation network, and applications essential for handling customer inquiries, adding that it is a structure in which it is difficult for the contractor to independently decide or change the way complaints are handled or the operating system.
Meanwhile, the ministry determined that it is difficult to recognize employer status for a subsidiary of the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation (TPF), a public institution.
The ministry explained its reasoning by saying the subsidiary holds considerable discretion and autonomy across personnel, organization, and overall operations, and it is hard to see the parent company as specifically controlling or determining the subsidiary's working conditions.
Going forward, the ministry plans to reduce legal uncertainty on the ground by further detailing the criteria for determining employer status through the collective bargaining judgment support committee and to guide labor-management negotiations between prime and subcontractors so they proceed smoothly.