The standing special counsel investigating allegations that probes into Coupang were quashed and that severance-like payments were not paid executed a search and seizure at the office of Coupang Fulfillment Services on the 23rd. The investigation is looking into allegations that Coupang changed its work rules and withheld payments in the nature of severance to day laborers.
According to legal sources, the standing special counsel has been securing related materials since the morning at the Coupang Fulfillment Services office in Songpa-gu, Seoul. The focus is whether the method of calculating severance-related payments was changed to disadvantage workers around May 2023, when the work rules were revised.
Coupang changed the criteria for paying severance-related payments from the previous rule—under which day laborers who worked for at least one year were excluded only for periods when their weekly work hours were under 15 hours—to a rule that applies only when a person has worked for at least one year and has weekly work hours of 15 hours or more. Because the system recalculates the severance calculation period if there is even a single day during the employment period when weekly hours fall to 15 or fewer, it was also called the severance reset rule.
An internal document from the time, including on improvements to the day-labor system, reportedly stated the intent of the rule change and said the concepts of annual leave, severance pay, and breaks in service would not be communicated separately to day-labor employees, 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 referred it in Jan. with a recommendation to indict. However, during the investigation, claims were raised at a National Assembly audit that a superior pressured investigators to issue a no-charges decision, sparking allegations of a quashed probe.
Director General Moon Ji-seok claimed that then-branch chief Um Hee-jun, his superior, and then-deputy chief prosecutor Kim Dong-hee pressured for a no-charges decision, and also raised allegations that key documents were omitted from a report to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and that confidential information such as plans for a search and seizure was leaked to Coupang. Um's side has called the allegations false and requested an investigation for false accusation.
After twice questioning Director General Moon as a reference witness, the special counsel launched the search and seizure the same day. After analyzing the secured materials, the team plans to summon Coupang officials to press them on the background and decision-making process behind the work-rule changes, and additional compulsory investigations related to the alleged quashing of the probe are also being discussed.
At issue is whether the work-rule change led to the withholding of payments in the nature of severance pay, and whether there was improper interference in the nonindictment process.