Park Su-keun, Chairperson of the Central Labor Relations Commission under the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), said at his first press briefing after taking office on the 13th that a decision recognizing corporations' substantive control (employer status) over subcontractor unions means acknowledging a status to meet and talk, not ordering wage increases or direct employment.
Chairperson Park is a labor law professor and former attorney. A member of the 18th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, Park is a classmate of President Lee Jae-myung. Park previously served as Central Labor Relations Commission chair from 2019 to 2022 under the Moon Jae-in administration. The Central Labor Relations Commission is a collegial body with a quasi-judicial character composed of labor, management and public-interest members, and it conducts adjudication and mediation on labor issues.
In opening remarks at the press briefing, Chairperson Park said the commission's employer-status determination is procedural in nature. Park added that it recognizes a status to meet and talk, not a decision to raise wages or mandate direct employment. Park went on to say it is not a decision that recognizes substantive rights and obligations.
Earlier, business circles raised concerns that, after the amended Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act (the yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers) took effect, a subcontractor recognized by the commission as having employer status because it is subject to the prime contractor's industrial safety supervision could sit at the bargaining table and put wages on the agenda.
Regarding this, Chairperson Park said that if, on legal grounds, substantive control is recognized in relation to safety and the parties sit down at the bargaining table, but the subcontractor union talks only about wages, management could say the matter is not one for which substantive control is recognized and there is no obligation to raise them.
Chairperson Park said the union side could claim an unfair labor practice in that case, but at that level there may be a possibility it would be seen as a legitimate reason for management to refuse to negotiate. Park added that if corporations simply do not sit at the table at all and, even after persuasion and explanation, no agreement is reached, it could be seen as a legitimate reason.
Some also argue that subcontractor unions could put wages on the bargaining agenda through indirect means, such as demanding additional allowances related to industrial safety. On this, Chairperson Park said that depending on the case, it could become an agenda item. Park added, however, that because some matters are very minor or go too far, determinations may differ by commission, central or local.
Chairperson Park also said that if, when corporations transfer their headquarters, workers are unconditionally required to relocate their base, it could potentially be subject to strike action. Park said that relocating the headquarters is often a managerial decision, but if all workers must move, working conditions worsen or daily life becomes inconvenient, so it could fall within the scope of a labor dispute. Recently, after HMM decided to move its headquarters from Seoul to Busan, on the 10th the HMM branch of the office and finance union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) filed for dispute mediation with the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission, making withdrawal of the headquarters relocation plan a bargaining agenda item.
Meanwhile, as of the 10th, one month after the yellow envelope law took effect, 1,012 subcontractor unions had demanded bargaining with 372 prime contractors. By prime contractor type, 58% (216) are private and 42% (156) are public. Of these, only 33 prime contractors posted notices acknowledging the subcontractor unions' bargaining demands. Chairperson Park said there are currently few employer notices, so many correction requests will likely be filed next week and the week after.