The special counsel team investigating allegations that Coupang quashed a probe and failed to pay retirement-type benefits raided the office of Coupang Fulfillment Services on the 23rd. The investigation is looking into claims that Coupang changed its workplace rules and withheld retirement-type payments owed to day laborers.
According to legal sources, the special counsel team has been securing related materials since the morning at the Coupang Fulfillment Services office in Songpa District, Seoul. The focus is whether the method for calculating retirement payments changed to the disadvantage of workers around May 2023, when the workplace rules were revised. Coupang Fulfillment Services is Coupang's logistics subsidiary.
An office near Gangnam Station in Seoul, known as the so-called "Coupang secret office," was also included in the search and seizure. Coupang faces allegations that it secretly ran a lobbying unit out of an unmarked office in the same building.
Coupang changed the criteria for paying retirement-type benefits from the previous standard—under which day laborers who worked at least one year were excluded only for periods when their weekly work hours were under 15—to a standard that applies to those who worked at least one year and had weekly work hours of 15 or more. Because even a single day with 15 or fewer weekly hours during the employment period would trigger a recalculation of the retirement payment period, it was also called the retirement pay reset rule.
An internal document drafted at the time on improving the day labor system reportedly included language stating that, along with the purpose of the rule change, the company would not separately communicate to day labor employees the concepts of annual leave, retirement pay, and breaks in employment, and that objections would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
The case was first concluded when the Bucheon Branch of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office decided not to indict in Apr., after the Bucheon Branch of the Jungbu Regional Employment and Labor Office had sent it to prosecutors with a recommendation to indict in Jan. However, during the investigation, claims arose at a National Assembly audit that a superior pressured investigators to drop the case, raising suspicions of quashing the probe.
Director General Moon Ji-seok claimed that Um Hee-jun, then the branch chief, and the deputy chief prosecutor at the time, Kim Dong-hee, pressured for a no-indictment decision. Moon also raised suspicions that key documents were omitted from a report to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and that confidential information, including details on search and seizure, was leaked to Coupang. Um's side maintains the allegations are false and has requested an investigation for false accusation.
Earlier, the special counsel team questioned Director General Moon twice as a reference witness. After analyzing the materials obtained that day, the team plans to summon Coupang officials to press them on the background of the workplace rule changes and the decision-making process, and additional compulsory investigations related to the alleged quashing of the probe are also being discussed.
The core issues in the case are whether the rule change led to the withholding of payments with the nature of retirement benefits and whether there was improper interference in the non-indictment process.